Prostitution in the Victorian

How menEra
and poverty
caused prostitution
Merli Estime
Professor LaFont
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Anthropology 39
Why Women Resorted to
Prostitution
Prostitution was acceptable behavior in the
Victorian era
Viewed as a women “having her way” because
she wasn’t seen as pure; once she violated the
wishes of her husband
England was a patriarchal society that viewed
men as decision makers and women as property
Men had the authority to divorce their wife, and
kick her out of the house if he had reason to
believe that she was unclean
Prostitution was a means of living in a society
where little employment, education, and economic
opportunity was available

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Women Forced to Prostitution

A young servant girl is

being forced into
having sex with her
boss. Today this
would be classified as
sexual harassment

3
Why Women Resorted to
Prostitution (continued)
Pure women could not wear jewelry, nor
could they have pleasurable sex
Their role was to reproduce children and
maintain the house
They were not allowed to have any
property nor could they hold a job unless it
was a servant or teacher
A woman was to obey her husband
because he was by law responsible for her

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 Man’s Ideal Women

Women were expected

to be pure, not wear
makeup,
and jewelry. It was also
not acceptable for
women to bare there
legs. Their job was to
reproduce children and
take care of the house
and her husband. Her
needs didn’t exist.

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Young Girls Precious Prostitutes

It wasn’t just women but young girls that could

range from eighteen to under the age of twelve
Young girls were forced into prostitution as a
means of income for their families.
The demand for little girls was so high that men
were willing to pay good money for them
-twenty pounds for working class girls between 14-
18
-a hundred pounds for middle class girls at the same
age
-four hundred pounds for upper class girls under the
age of 12
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Young Girls Precious Prostitutes

While some girls were forced into prostitution by

families for economic reasons others were
kidnapped in order to meet the demands of men
It was a belief that by having sex with a child , you
would be cured from the sexually transmitted
diseases

7
 Prostitution:
Benefiting Men Two Fold
Men were able to use prostitution as a means of economic
development, industrialization and urbanization
Prostitution of women became like a luxury item (like a car)
they were advertised as “sexed bodies for hire”
There was a decrease of women in the domestic labor force
examples: servants, seamstresses, chambermaids
These women were turning to the prostitution industry
because it seemed more beneficial economically
As result male immigrants were able to secure jobs.

8
 Prostitution=
Business Opportunity for Men
This is a whorehouse
where It was a belief that
if a woman wasn’t under
orders of a man and she
was independent; she
would take on a label
worse then a prostitute
she would be considered
a whore.

9
 Prostitutes Victimized

This is picture of a
police article about
Jack The Ripper’s
fourth victim, 43-year-
old Catherine
Eddowes who had
been slashed to death.
Their was a public
outcry because
prostitutes were being
killed and police
investigations were
not being done.

10
Religion, Society and a Solution to
Prostitution
There was a movement at the turn of the 19th
century to save the growing number of prostitutes
Through religion help would only be offered on
the account that the prostitute would repent
Problem that arose with this was that once a girl or
woman became a prostitute she was looked at as
an outcast
Even organizations like The Society for the
Protection of Women and Children wouldn’t help
these girls and instead would ignore the issue

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Religion, Society and Solution to
Prostitution (continued)
Christian abolitionists solution for ending prostitution
would be by teaching young children to stay away from it
Another solution would be to turn away from prostitution
and turn over a new leaf (clean)
the problem for a lot of those prostitutes, the reasoning
behind why some had chosen the path was to have a roof
over their head and food to eat
Regulationist ( police and physicians) solution for
prostitution was to regulate or legalize it.
Their hopes in regulating or legalizing prostitution would
bring a decrease in crime and sexually transmitted diseases

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 Prostitution Still an Issue
Prostitution has not decreased or gone way in the
least bit
The reasons that women and young girls had
turned to prostitution in the Victorian era still
holds true today
-economical needs: more and more women and
children are living in poverty than ever before
-emotional and sexual satisfaction
-being sexually abused as a child: similar to the fate
of young girls in the Victorian era who had been
kidnapped
-selling sex in exchange for drugs and money
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 Prostitution Still an Issue
(continued)
Society still views prostitution as morally
wrong
Women who are prostitutes are viewed as
used product, broken, no good, and disease
ridden
Respect is not given to prostitutes
They are viewed not viewed as victims but
as asking for “it”; men are innocent

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 Prostitution Still an Issue
(continued)
The debate still continues today as to
whether or not prostitution should be
legalized or regulated by the government
Several religions still believe that
prostitution is immoral and that it not only
exploits women but demoralize marriage
The biggest supporters of prostitutes are
prostitutes

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 Final Say
In reading about the Victorian era and prostitution, I’ve learned
that in more ways than one men for a very long time have kept
women oppressed. They have done this by being in roles of
power (politics), and made laws that would indeed benefit them
and not women. To know that you can marry a man work equally
as hard as him and that you would only be recognized as one, is
ridiculous. These women weren’t wives they were more like well
treated slaves to their husbands.
I was surprised by the fact that in England prostitution, although
is not talked about the fact that they have public brothels, and
that it was expected of a man to not only have a wife but to also
have sex with a prostitute to fulfill his sexual appetite; something
his wife was forbidden to do. Who knew? Another issue that was
appalling to me was the fact that young children were being
forced into prostitution in order to provide for the family. In that
time period I guess knowing your child would suffer all in the
name of the family would sit right in their hearts.

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 Final Say
(continued)

My opinion: legalize and regulate prostitution, let

them create a union, that’s the least that this
patriarchal society can do. After all these centuries
of oppression and having to follow the direct
orders of a man, it’s about time that a woman be
able to choose what she wants to do. Doesn’t the
fact remain that it is her body, who are we to tell
her what she is doing with it.
For the religious nay sayers think about it in the
end when judgment day arrives, we are not the
ones to judge. So stop making judgment calls for
people on their lives, it is their’s to live.

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 Bibliography
Stolba, Christine. “The Newest Dilemma About the Oldest
Profession.” Women’s Quarterly. Autumn 2000, Vol 26.

Pivar, David J. Purity Crusade Sexual Morality and Social Control,

1868-1900. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1973.

“The Sex Business”. Economist. February 14, 1998. Vol 346, Issue
8055.

Sims, E. (1910), “For God’s sake do something: Trafficking in

Young Girls or War on the White Slave Trade”. G.S. Ball.

Joseph, Cathy. Scarlet Wounding: Issues of Child Prostitution. The

Journal of Psychohistory. V. 23 No. 1 Summer 1995

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