Prostitution and Victorian Society

• Preface; Introduction; Part I. Prostitution, Social Science and Venereal Disease: 1. The common prostitute in Victorian Britain; 2. Social science and the great social evil; 3. Venereal disease; Part II. The Contagious Diseases Acts, Regulationists and Repealers: 4. The Contagious Diseases Acts and their advocates; 5. The repeal campaign; 6. The leadership of the Ladies' National Association; 7. Class and gender conflict within the repeal movement; Part III. Two Case Studies: Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts: 8. Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts; 9. The repeal campaign in Plymouth and Southampton 1870–4; 10. The making of an outcast group: prostitutes and working women in Plymouth and Southampton; 11. The hospitals; 12. The local repeal campaign, 1874–86; Epilog; Notes; Selected bibliography; Index.

'Prostitution and Victorian Society represents women's history at its most ambitious and effective. Walkowitz's discerning analysis of the Ladies National Association's ideas and strategies makes her book a very useful part of the political education of feminists of our own generation.' Ellen Ross, Signs