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Flashcards in CDA Deck (34)
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1
Q

Women in the late 19th century

A
  • Victoria is on the throne. Industrial revolution.
  • No women could legally vote in parliamentary elections
  • BUT, had increasingly influential role in local governments
2
Q

progress for women in the 19th century

A
  • oxford and Cambridge opened their doors to women

- reform movement led by Josephine Butler

3
Q

restrictions on women in the 19th century

A
  • blue-stockings considered unfeminine and to have damaged their ovaries
  • women assumed to want marriage and children rather than just sexual desires
4
Q

Why was the CDA introduced? (military)?

A
  • venereal disease was seen as weakening the British army (after reports from Crimean war)
  • caused 1/3 of sickness in army.
  • 1859 compulsory examination of the men was abandoned due to hostility from the men
5
Q

What was the Parliamentary committee 1862?

A
  • established to come up with solution
  • Sir John Liddell’s conservative viewpoint favoured over liberal one. He suggests prostitutes must be regulated, registered, and subjected to compulsory examinations
  • kept quiet in press
6
Q

What did the 1964 CDA do?

A
  • allowed police officers to arrest suspected prostitutes in 11 naval ports/army towns
  • compulsory medical checks. could be kept in lock hospital for up to 3 months.
7
Q

What did the 1966 CDA do?

A

-compulsory periodical examination of all prostitutes in these 11 areas

8
Q

What did the 1969 CDA do?

A
  • extended to 18 districts

- max stay in lock hospital increased to nine months

9
Q

who enforced the CDA?

A
  • plain clothed metropolitan policemen arrest them

- army or navy surgeons conduct examinations

10
Q

How did the acts effect prostitutes?

A

-many working class women occasionally turned to prostitution rather than having it as a full time career

–> especially those in garrison towns or mining towns where many were unsupported

11
Q

How did the acts effect ordinary women?

A
  • those in poorer areas likely to be stopped even if innocent
  • Mrs Percy’s suicide in 1875
  • many were illiterate and did not know their legal rights
12
Q

What happened to women under the CDA?

A
  • prostitutes on a register and had fortnightly checks. If they refused they could be fined or serve a prison sentence
  • surgeon gives them a card if clean. Otherwise, treated severely in a lock hospital
  • Treatment was Mercury, known to be toxic. relieved symptoms but did not cure.
13
Q

Why did people oppose the CDA?

A
  • rules to identify women were vague. unfair.
  • broke Habeas Corpus
  • anti-democratic
  • seen to be legalising prostitution
  • some religious groups argued it made premarital sex for men a minor and forgivable sin
14
Q

did the CDA work?

A
  • MP James Stansfeld showed parliament in 1880 that it did not work
  • made it worse, as men felt safe and the disease spread more
15
Q

did everyone oppose the CDA?

A
  • The Times gave more attention to those wishing to attain the act
  • -> at least 7 front-page headlines solely supported the acts
  • signatures of 1000 doctors who supported acts
  • support was small but influential (dragged out debate for 16 years)
16
Q

Who were the National Association for Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts?

A
  • formed 1869
  • middle class, male movement
  • published journal called the shield
17
Q

Who were the Ladies’ National Association for Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts?

A
  • led by Josephine Butler
  • ‘women’s manifesto’ published in the Daily news with 128 signatures (31 Dec 1869)

–> copy presented to parliament with 2000 signatures

-drew a lot of attention to issue

18
Q

Who was Josephine Butler?

A

-worked in liverpool to support poor women and girls in a local poorhouse

19
Q

What was Josephine Butler’s role?

A
  • forceful, persuasive speaker
  • respectable leadership to a taboo movement
  • shook social expectations
  • argued that the laws were unreasonable and unequal
20
Q

Who was Elizabeth Wolstenholme?

A
  • denied an education by her father
  • founded a school for girls
  • strong advocate of women’s rights
  • tried to pressure MPs to include female suffrage in 1967
21
Q

What was Elizabeth Wolstenholme’s role?

A
  • founding member of LNA
  • direct role. fond of petitions
  • pregnant by a man she lived with but was not married to. Discredited LNA a bit.
22
Q

what support was there in parliament for repeal?

A

-William Fowler and James Stansfield (liberal MPs)

23
Q

How did the parliamentary commissions help the act get repealed?

A

-two parliamentary commissions established to inquire in to how the laws were organised

–> recommended that parts of the law were removed as they were immoral

–> ignored by the gov but strengthened the opposition’s arguments

24
Q

what happened in 1883?

A
  • James Stansfield presented a speech to parliament calling the act undemocratic and immoral
  • -> proposed to abolish compulsory medical extermination
  • -> passed by vote of 182 to 110
25
Q

what happened in 1886?

A

-Gladstone’s liberal government wanted to abolish acts completely. passed by a majority of 114 votes

26
Q

Why did the parliament repeal the laws (opposition)?

A
  • scale of opposition
  • 10,000 petitions
  • opposition included eloquent and respectable advocates
  • opposition represented many different groups
27
Q

Why did the parliament repeal the laws ?

A
  • acts were ineffective and it was hard to prove that a woman was not infected
  • new liberal government
  • small changed to women’s rights coincided
  • media gradually gave more favorable coverage to Opposition
28
Q

why was the CDA introduced (social)?

A
  • 1848 public health act had worked, so this too should encourage moral improvement surely?
  • soldiers used brothels due to disallowed marriage and homosexuality, and saw illicit commercial sex and inescapable, thus it must be contained and regulated
29
Q

why was the CDA introduced (religious)?

A

evangelical Christians condemned the use of prostitutes, as it desecrated the holy union of marriage

30
Q

how was the CDA hypocritical?

A
  • officials responsible for punishing prostitute had also bought their sexual services
  • discriminated against women, who were ironically victims of male lust and medical and police tyranny
31
Q

what impact did early public agitation have on the CDA?

A
  • early radicals and newly enfranchised w/c were unhappy with the laws. Daniel Cooper.
  • no immediate impact but laid foundations
32
Q

what impact did nationwide repeal groups have on the CDA?

A
  • 1872-3 regional electoral leagues organised
  • Henry Wilson cultivated support from the liberal party
  • petitions signed by 2.5m people
33
Q

who was James Stansfield?

A
  • lost his cabinet post in 1874
  • collated medical and scientific stats
  • he made repeal movement more effective as a movement. Pushed for end of medical examinations in 1882
34
Q

was there parliamentary support for the CDA?

A
  • liberals MPs increasingly in support of repeal
  • Henry Wilson created political committee of liberal MPs to push for repeal
  • they repealed the acts
  • conservatives did respond to lobbying in 1879