Campaign for repeal

Question 1

Elizabeth Wolstenholme

Answer 1

• her idea to set up LNA
• held very radical views on women’s rights
• openly hostile to marriage - legally disadvantageous for women
• asked Josephine Butler to lead the movement

Question 2

Ladies National Association (LNA)

Answer 2

• 120 women, including Butler, signed a protest against the acts and est. formation of LNA
• signatures quickly increased to over 2000
• attracted widespread publicity as an all female movement

Question 3

Josephine Butler and leadership

Answer 3

• dominated LNA and guided its policy
• gifted speaker
• in her first year travelled 3700 miles and addressed 99 meetings
• set up ‘house of rest’ for prostitutes
• hostile towards social elite

Question 4

Josephine Butler background

Answer 4

• gained sense of justice from father who supported abolition of slavery
• father encouraged her to read about social and political issues
• her marriage described as a ‘marriage of equals’
• daughter died
• began to work among women of Liverpool workhouses

Question 5

Leaders of the LNA

Answer 5

• mostly from affluent, middle class backgrounds
• independence to devote themselves to movement
• felt obligation to defend interests of working women

Question 6

LNA methods of campaigning

Answer 6

• petitioning 1870-1886, 18,000 petitions signed by over 2.5 million
• the shield - LNA newspaper
• reported death of Miss Percy - re-energised movement as first martyr

Question 7

Henry Wilson and electoral leagues

Answer 7

• regional leader and national leader of repeal campaign and later liberal MP
• leader of northern counties league
• cultivated support of liberal party
• wilson and fellow campaigners created political committee of liberal MPs to push repeal in parliament

Question 8

Henry Storks and interference of elections

Answer 8

• Storks implemented a system to regulate prostitutes when governer of Malta
• strong supporter of CDA
• repealers sabotaged him in the 1870 Colchester election

Question 9

James Stansfeld

Answer 9

• liberal MP and cabinet minister
• assumed national leadership of movement and set about making it an effective pressure group

Question 10

James Stansfeld and liberal party

Answer 10

• liberal defeat in 1874 relieved Stansfeld of duties so full focus on repeal
• encouraged more data collection to show failure of acts
• re-election of liberal party in 1880 - Stansfeld made a member
• increasing number of liberal MPs committed to repeal
• struck deal with Gladstone backing his Irish home rule act in return for backing of repeal

Question 11

Repeal of the acts

Answer 11

• 1883 introduced a motion against compulsory examinations
• passed 182 to 110
• acts now unworkable
• acts finally repealed 1886