Helen Rogers
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199271337
- eISBN:
- 9780191699511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199271337.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
In 1869, with scant debate or dissent, the newly reformed Parliament passed the Third Contagious Diseases Act (CDA) which, extending those of 1864 and 1866, aimed to diminish the spread of venereal ...
More
In 1869, with scant debate or dissent, the newly reformed Parliament passed the Third Contagious Diseases Act (CDA) which, extending those of 1864 and 1866, aimed to diminish the spread of venereal disease in the armed forces by providing for the medical examination of prostitutes in garrison towns and, if infected, their compulsory treatment. The CDA has been read as exemplifying the new disciplinary structures of the mid-19th-century state that produced knowledge about ‘fallen women’ by categorizing and regulating sexual behaviour and thereby policing the boundaries between the ‘respectable’ and ‘unrespectable’ poor. The repeal campaign has been seen as a major conductor of feminist consciousness yet, paradoxically, though studies have focused on the movement's defence of women's liberty and critique of the exclusively masculinist state; little attention has been paid to the sources or the implications of their political conceptions of the state per se. While, for many, the CDA typified the dangers of state power for women, some women were beginning to target the state as a site for the exercise of their expertise and authority. This chapter shows how the CDA posed challenging matters of principle and priority for the first generation of professional female nursing and medical practitioners.Less
In 1869, with scant debate or dissent, the newly reformed Parliament passed the Third Contagious Diseases Act (CDA) which, extending those of 1864 and 1866, aimed to diminish the spread of venereal disease in the armed forces by providing for the medical examination of prostitutes in garrison towns and, if infected, their compulsory treatment. The CDA has been read as exemplifying the new disciplinary structures of the mid-19th-century state that produced knowledge about ‘fallen women’ by categorizing and regulating sexual behaviour and thereby policing the boundaries between the ‘respectable’ and ‘unrespectable’ poor. The repeal campaign has been seen as a major conductor of feminist consciousness yet, paradoxically, though studies have focused on the movement's defence of women's liberty and critique of the exclusively masculinist state; little attention has been paid to the sources or the implications of their political conceptions of the state per se. While, for many, the CDA typified the dangers of state power for women, some women were beginning to target the state as a site for the exercise of their expertise and authority. This chapter shows how the CDA posed challenging matters of principle and priority for the first generation of professional female nursing and medical practitioners.
