Abstract
The first subsection explores legal statutes on prostitution and related activities in Victorian and Edwardian England, and the working-class origin of most prostitutes. Many considered prostitution immoral; others saw extreme poverty and dismal employment prospects as its causes. Dukore emphasizes W.T. Stead’s exposé of child prostitution, which was instrumental in bringing public pressure to bear on Parliament to raise the age of consent for women from thirteen to sixteen. Stead sensationalized the procurement of girls, the sale of virgins, and the transportation of English females to continental brothels. The plays Pygmalion and Mrs Warren’s Profession reflect prostitution. As the second subsection shows, when the poor attend protest rallies, the Government summons the police to stop them, using laws on public order and public safety. Prominent here are rallies for women suffrage in Edwardian England, the Government’s use of police to intimidate suffragists, plays by Elizabeth Robins and Shaw, his non-dramatic writings and speeches, the militant women’s destructiveness (breaking windows, arson, and explosives), hunger strikes by imprisoned women and men, women’s response to World War I, and the effect of this war on women and men’s suffrage.
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Dukore, B.F. (2017). Women, Crime, and Punishment. In: Crimes and Punishments and Bernard Shaw. Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62746-5_8
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