Sex, Gender, and Religion: Josephine Butler Revisited
will appeal to readers interested in women’s subjectivity and agency. Josephine Butler (1828-1906) spearheaded campaigns against state regulation of prostitution. A gifted platform speaker, she enthused a variety of British and European audiences, and wrote abundantly about her cause. Contributors revisit Butler after the end of the twentieth century, where she has been fêted, forgotten, and then rediscovered as reformer, mystic, and feminist. Firmly locating Butler within her context, this book breaks new ground by focusing on the role of religion in her life and work, as well as on Butler as (auto)biographer, writing her own self as she writes her campaign.