2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

Social reformer Josephine Butler (1828 – 1906) campaigned against the sexual exploitation of women and children. In 1880 she assisted in an exposé on child sex trafficking between Belgium and Britain which appeared in the Pall Mall Gazetteunder the title "The Maiden Tribute of Babylon," subsequently forcing the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 that raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 years of age.

Inspiration for the play The Maiden Tribute by Jean Giebel (Drama Department, Hofstra University) comes from Butler’s writing in 1896: "Our long years of labor and conflict ought not to be forgotten. A knowledge of, and a reverence for, the principles for which we have striven ought to be kept alive, for…these principles are very far from being even yet so clearly recognized as that our children and our children’s children may not be called upon to rise again and again in their defense.”

The play simultaneous presents scenes from Butler’s life recounted in her books, Recollections of George Butler (1892) and Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade (1898), juxtaposed against the fictional Lillian, a contemporary woman on a journey from awareness to activism.

A question and answer period will follow.