By Keira McGahon
Recently, I’ve been involved with The November Club who have created a micro-musical about Josephine Butler. It was an amazing opportunity to talk about experiences to do with women's rights and feminism. With the help of the November Club (a production company) and Katie Doherty we created a podcast about all the achievements that Josepehine Butler had in her lifetime. The podcast was created with voices from CLV, Stagecoach North Tyneside and other young voices from around Northumberland. It explores the role of women and as well as snippets of speech about Butler’s own life experience. There are snapshots of how young women and girls today are experiencing discrimination and sexism in the modern world. If you want to listen to this fantastic free podcast, it can be found on all music and streaming sites.
We’ve recently learnt that this innovative podcast musical will be transformed into a full length stage musical by 2024, involving school choirs and young voices from across the county.
Who was Josephine Butler and what did she do?
Josephine Butler was a social reformer during the Victorian era when things for women were much worse than they are now. Some of the achievements she had were:
1864 - had 4 children, 3 of which were boys.
1869 - she began the campaign of her life, trying to repeal the contagious diseases act; these examinations of women were unjust and humiliating. By doing this campaign, she was confronting Victorian attitudes to women head on.
1884, Europe - Josey travels across the continent to campaign against the trafficking of children.
1885 - Josey raises the age of consent from 13 to 16.
1886 - The contagious diseases acts are finally repealed.
1890 - George (her Husband) dies.
Josephine Butler's Local Life
Josey was born in Northumberland in 1828 during the Victorian era. She was an activist for women's rights and took part in the suffragette movement. She also campaigned for many other things including better education for women and put an end to human trafficking of children and young girls. With Northumberland being so small during this time, it is such a big achievement for a county like this. Unfortunately, looking back on Northumberland's history, it seems Josephine Butler was erased from it all together. This county was famous for its historic borders and battles, but Jospephine Butler was never mentioned in any of it, she did so much for this county and no one appreciated it. We should thank her for the battle SHE put an end to. Thanks to her our lives are very different to how they could have been.
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