WHEN COURAGE CALLS: JOSEPHINE BUTLER AND THE RADICAL PURSUIT OF JUSTICE FOR WOMEN Sarah C Williams (Hodder & Stoughton, 2024) 320pp, hardback
Josephine Butler led a successful movement to raise the age of consent and abolish the shameful Contagious Diseases Acts of the 19th century. Her influence is underappreciated for the paradigm-shifting transformation she led across the UK.
How did Joesphine Butler manage this incredible movement? Sarah Williams tells us the answer – prayer, prayer and prayer! When Courage Calls is an historical biography of Josephine Butler but with an emphasis on how Butler’s faith drove social change.
Butler was not simply a successful campaigner. It was the way in which she listened that made her an exceptional leader. She first listened intently to God in prayer and second spent time with the vulnerable. Having suffered deep loss herself, she opened her life to listen to oppressed women on the margins of society.
Josephine and her husband, George, defy the norms of Victorian Britain. They have a firm belief in the equality of their marriage. George even takes on the supportive role to enable his wife to campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts. The Butlers seem ahead of their time, which shouldn’t surprise us, as they helped shape much of what we now take for granted in 21st century Britain.
