CDA

Question 1

Women in the late 19th century

Answer 1

• Victoria is on the throne. Industrial revolution.
• No women could legally vote in parliamentary elections
• BUT, had increasingly influential role in local governments

Question 2

progress for women in the 19th century

Answer 2

• oxford and Cambridge opened their doors to women

- reform movement led by Josephine Butler

Question 3

restrictions on women in the 19th century

Answer 3

• blue-stockings considered unfeminine and to have damaged their ovaries
• women assumed to want marriage and children rather than just sexual desires

Question 4

Why was the CDA introduced? (military)?

Answer 4

• venereal disease was seen as weakening the British army (after reports from Crimean war)
• caused 1/3 of sickness in army.
• 1859 compulsory examination of the men was abandoned due to hostility from the men

Question 5

What was the Parliamentary committee 1862?

Answer 5

• established to come up with solution
• Sir John Liddell’s conservative viewpoint favoured over liberal one. He suggests prostitutes must be regulated, registered, and subjected to compulsory examinations
• kept quiet in press

Question 6

What did the 1964 CDA do?

Answer 6

• allowed police officers to arrest suspected prostitutes in 11 naval ports/army towns
• compulsory medical checks. could be kept in lock hospital for up to 3 months.

Question 7

What did the 1966 CDA do?

Answer 7

-compulsory periodical examination of all prostitutes in these 11 areas

Question 8

What did the 1969 CDA do?

Answer 8

• extended to 18 districts

- max stay in lock hospital increased to nine months

Question 9

who enforced the CDA?

Answer 9

• plain clothed metropolitan policemen arrest them

- army or navy surgeons conduct examinations

Question 10

How did the acts effect prostitutes?

Answer 10

-many working class women occasionally turned to prostitution rather than having it as a full time career

–> especially those in garrison towns or mining towns where many were unsupported

Question 11

How did the acts effect ordinary women?

Answer 11

• those in poorer areas likely to be stopped even if innocent
• Mrs Percy’s suicide in 1875
• many were illiterate and did not know their legal rights

Question 12

What happened to women under the CDA?

Answer 12

• prostitutes on a register and had fortnightly checks. If they refused they could be fined or serve a prison sentence
• surgeon gives them a card if clean. Otherwise, treated severely in a lock hospital
• Treatment was Mercury, known to be toxic. relieved symptoms but did not cure.

Question 13

Why did people oppose the CDA?

Answer 13

• rules to identify women were vague. unfair.
• broke Habeas Corpus
• anti-democratic
• seen to be legalising prostitution
• some religious groups argued it made premarital sex for men a minor and forgivable sin

Question 14

did the CDA work?

Answer 14

• MP James Stansfeld showed parliament in 1880 that it did not work
• made it worse, as men felt safe and the disease spread more

Question 15

did everyone oppose the CDA?

Answer 15

• The Times gave more attention to those wishing to attain the act
• -> at least 7 front-page headlines solely supported the acts
• signatures of 1000 doctors who supported acts
• support was small but influential (dragged out debate for 16 years)

Question 16

Who were the National Association for Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts?

Answer 16

• formed 1869
• middle class, male movement
• published journal called the shield

Question 17

Who were the Ladies’ National Association for Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts?

Answer 17

• led by Josephine Butler
• ‘women’s manifesto’ published in the Daily news with 128 signatures (31 Dec 1869)

–> copy presented to parliament with 2000 signatures

-drew a lot of attention to issue

Question 18

Who was Josephine Butler?

Answer 18

-worked in liverpool to support poor women and girls in a local poorhouse

Question 19

What was Josephine Butler’s role?

Answer 19

• forceful, persuasive speaker
• respectable leadership to a taboo movement
• shook social expectations
• argued that the laws were unreasonable and unequal

Question 20

Who was Elizabeth Wolstenholme?

Answer 20

• denied an education by her father
• founded a school for girls
• strong advocate of women’s rights
• tried to pressure MPs to include female suffrage in 1967

Question 21

What was Elizabeth Wolstenholme’s role?

Answer 21

• founding member of LNA
• direct role. fond of petitions
• pregnant by a man she lived with but was not married to. Discredited LNA a bit.

Question 22

what support was there in parliament for repeal?

Answer 22

-William Fowler and James Stansfield (liberal MPs)

Question 23

How did the parliamentary commissions help the act get repealed?

Answer 23

-two parliamentary commissions established to inquire in to how the laws were organised

–> recommended that parts of the law were removed as they were immoral

–> ignored by the gov but strengthened the opposition’s arguments

Question 24

what happened in 1883?

Answer 24

• James Stansfield presented a speech to parliament calling the act undemocratic and immoral
• -> proposed to abolish compulsory medical extermination
• -> passed by vote of 182 to 110

Question 25

what happened in 1886?

Answer 25

-Gladstone’s liberal government wanted to abolish acts completely. passed by a majority of 114 votes

Question 26

Why did the parliament repeal the laws (opposition)?

Answer 26

• scale of opposition
• 10,000 petitions
• opposition included eloquent and respectable advocates
• opposition represented many different groups

Question 27

Why did the parliament repeal the laws ?

Answer 27

• acts were ineffective and it was hard to prove that a woman was not infected
• new liberal government
• small changed to women’s rights coincided
• media gradually gave more favorable coverage to Opposition

Question 28

why was the CDA introduced (social)?

Answer 28

• 1848 public health act had worked, so this too should encourage moral improvement surely?
• soldiers used brothels due to disallowed marriage and homosexuality, and saw illicit commercial sex and inescapable, thus it must be contained and regulated

Question 29

why was the CDA introduced (religious)?

Answer 29

evangelical Christians condemned the use of prostitutes, as it desecrated the holy union of marriage

Question 30

how was the CDA hypocritical?

Answer 30

• officials responsible for punishing prostitute had also bought their sexual services
• discriminated against women, who were ironically victims of male lust and medical and police tyranny

Question 31

what impact did early public agitation have on the CDA?

Answer 31

• early radicals and newly enfranchised w/c were unhappy with the laws. Daniel Cooper.
• no immediate impact but laid foundations

Question 32

what impact did nationwide repeal groups have on the CDA?

Answer 32

• 1872-3 regional electoral leagues organised
• Henry Wilson cultivated support from the liberal party
• petitions signed by 2.5m people

Question 33

who was James Stansfield?

Answer 33

• lost his cabinet post in 1874
• collated medical and scientific stats
• he made repeal movement more effective as a movement. Pushed for end of medical examinations in 1882

Question 34

was there parliamentary support for the CDA?

Answer 34

• liberals MPs increasingly in support of repeal
• Henry Wilson created political committee of liberal MPs to push for repeal
• they repealed the acts
• conservatives did respond to lobbying in 1879