19th Century Britain had high levels of sex workers, particularly women coming from working class backgrounds who had fallen into destitute and impoverished circumstances. As Victorian society held expectations of ‘respectability’, morality, and female chastity, ex work was framed as an immoral and sinful practice.

Very few servicemen in the armed forces were permitted to marry, and those who did struggled to financially support their wives, leading to military wives becoming sex workers themselves. Conditions within the army barracks were cramped, overcrowded, poorly ventilated, and lacking in sanitation. This forced celibacy of servicemen led to an increase in sex workers in locations frequented by the armed forces. During the 1840s and 1850s, sex workers were most commonly found in  garrison towns, and naval ports.

Hand-in-hand with the increased  number of sex workers, was the increase in venereal diseases. By 1864, 1 in 3 cases of illness within the armed forces was caused by a sexually transmitted disease, with admissions to hospital for gonorrhoea and syphilis accounting for 34% of the total troop number.

In a bid to control the spread of venereal diseases within the armed forces, the government introduced the Contagious Diseases Act in 1864. The Act forced women suspected of prostitution to undergo compulsory invasive examinations for venereal diseases by the police. If signs of diseases were found, women were sent to ‘lock hospitals’. This applied to garrison towns and naval ports – Chatham, Colchester, Cork, Curragh, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Shorncliffe, and Woolwich. The male clients of the sex workers were not examined. Contagious Diseases Act was extended in 1866 to include Canterbury, Devonport, Dover, Gravesend, Maidstone, Southampton and Winchester. Further additions were made in 1869.

The Acts were contentious for many, with Josephine Butler amongst those leading the campaign to repeal them. Eventually succeeding in 1886. The efficacy of the Acts were questionable, with doctors stating that they had little to no impact on controlling the spread of venereal diseases, rather the improvements came in the ability to treat them.

Women’s suffrage became a national movement during the latter half of the 19^th century after the First Reform Bill of 1832 specifically excluded women from voting. Many believed that as long as women were disenfranchised, they would continue to face oppression despite other legal rights that they were gaining.

The first petition on women’s suffrage took place in 1832, however it took 35 years for this to be seriously debated in parliament and subsequently was defeated. MP John Stuart Mill proposed an amendment to the Reform Bill that would give women the same political rights as men. This was defeated by 196 votes to 73. This to the establishment of the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage (LNSWS) and the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage (MNSWS) in the same year. Early campaigns included the circulation of pamphlets and petitioning, with the MNSWS holding a public meeting on 14 April 1868, which is widely considered as the beginning of the suffrage campaign, and is significant as it was rare for women to speak publicly at this time. In 1897, various suffrage societies from across the country joined to form the umbrella society the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.

Despite the birth of the movement taking place during the mid-19^th century, the cause didn’t see success until after the end of the First World War. In 1918, some women over the age of 30 were granted a vote, this was extended to all women over the age of 21 in 1928.

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is best known as the founder of modern nursing, and a social campaigner. Most notably, she led a group of British nurses to care for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War in 1854. Upon her return from the war, the Nightingale fund was set up to continue her work, which by 1960 Nightingale used the donations to establish the world’s first nursing school – The Nightingale School of Nursing – at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. A school for midwives was later established.

She continued to campaign for medical reform, in particular improvements to the health of the British Army. She kept meticulous records on the running of barracks hospitals including causes of illness and death, the efficiency of staff, and difficulties with resources. A Royal Commission was established using this data, and resulted in a marked reform in the military medical system.

Despite being bedridden with illness for most of her later life, she extensively wrote, consulted on, and served as an authority on healthcare reform, public sanitation, and how to best manage military field hospitals. She also extensively wrote in support of feminism and women’s suffrage.

Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) was one of the leading promoters of 19^th century prison reform. She also helped to improve the British hospital system, and treatments for those with mental health conditions.

In 1813, Fry first visited Newgate Prison and was horrified by the conditions and treatment of prisoners. Over 300 women and children were crowded into a small space, many were sleeping on the floor with no covers or warm clothes. She organised a group to help female and child prisoners at Newgate, providing warm clothing and straw.

Fry was keen to promote the idea of rehabilitation for inmates. She provided inmates with materials to allow the women to learn to sew and knit, so they could make goods to sell for an income upon their release. She also set up a prison school for the children.

Fry visited prisons across the country, keeping extensive diaries of what she saw, and petitioned Parliament in 1818 to improve the conditions. She was instrumental in the 1823 Gaols Act which mandated separate prisons for male and female inmates, and female wardens for female inmates. This was in a bid to protect the female inmates from sexual assault and exploitation. Aside from this, the Act was largely ineffective as it did not contain governing body to ensure that the provisions were followed and some institutions were not regulated by the Act. Prison inspectors were eventually appointed with the passing of the Prisons Act 1835, with all prisons and gaols being brought under central control.

Caroline Norton (1808-1877) was an English poet and novelist, social reformer and campaigner for married women’s rights. In 1836, after nine years in a reportedly unhappy and abusive marriage to Conservative MP George Norton, Caroline left her husband and sought divorce. George Norton, who had been accused by many of coercion, confiscated the earnings Caroline had made from her publications, claiming that as her husband they were legally his; abducted their three sons; and sued Prime Minister, and close friend of Caroline, Lord Melbourne for adultery. Although found not guilty of adultery, Caroline was not granted a divorce and was denied access to her three sons, the laws of the time favouring fathers in terms of custody. 

Caroline’s protests against her husband’s actions, including submitting a detailed account of her marriage to Parliament, and penning a campaign letter to Queen Victoria, led to the passing of the Custody of Infants Act 1839, the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, and the Married Women’s Property Act 1870.

The Custody of Children Act granted legally separated or divorced women custody of their children up to the age of seven, and periodic access thereafter. This was the first time that married women were given a legal right to their children, however, due to the need to petition the Court of Chancery, in practice very few women were able to afford this. The Matrimonial Causes made divorce more affordable, and established a model of marriage based on contract. The Married Women’s Property Act 1870 recognised spouses as separate legal entities and allowed women to inherit, own and control property.

Despite her campaigns to extend the legal rights of women, Caroline rejected wider issues of women’s rights including suffrage, writing in the The Time in 1838 “the natural position of woman is inferiority to man”.