A MILITANT FEMINIST

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 812, 18 February 1955, Page 13

A MILITANT FEMINIST

PORTRAIT OF JOSEPHINE BUTLER, by A. S G. Butler; Faber and Faber, English price 21/-. OSEPHINE BUTLER, married to an amiable Victorian scholar who loved his wife and liked his wine, was probably the most dynamic woman champion of a cause in an age which produced many such. Her great work was to oppose the state toleration and the commercialisation of prostitution. This she did with untiring energy and valour, outgeneralling statesmen, bureaucrats, military leaders, and wealthy racketeers with mobs of hired thugs. When she had got her wav in England she invaded the Continent of Europe, and fought with even more spectacular daring, even if with less success. She found time, too, for philosophy, for writing, and for personal womanly help to those whose interests she had at heart. She was more of a feminist than a moralist; in her old age she would admire the charm of a prostitute who had rooms in the same house as she, but her wrath was aroused when this woman was forced to become part of the organisation of commercialised vice; she dared to sympathise with Oscar Wilde when he was deprived of his freedom. She took an interest in politics, too, and often wrote with clear insight: "For many years I have had a conyiction that Russia must _break up and pass away--but where?’ and into what?" (1902). Mrs, Butler had, of course, a tide of social and economic change following. The emancipation of women had been written on the walls of the first factories of the industrial revolution. But she un(continued on next page)

BOOKS (continued from previous page) doubtedly brought about changes sooner than they would otherwise have occurred and gave them intelligent direction. Her grandson’s study of her life tends, naturally enough, to be personal, indeed, boringly so for the first 50 pages. But he then surprises the reader with a most competent account of her work, and concludes with a study of her character, less absorbing, perhaps, but valuable. .

Walter

Brookes