Table Of ContentGENDERS AND SEXUALITIES IN HISTORY
Wolfenden’s Women
Prostitution in Postwar Britain
Samantha Caslin · Julia Laite
Genders and Sexualities in History
Series Editors
John Arnold
King’s College
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Sean Brady
Birkbeck College
University of London
London, UK
Joanna Bourke
Birkbeck College
University of London
London, UK
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Historical studies of gender and sexuality have, until recently, been
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Samantha Caslin • Julia Laite
Wolfenden’s Women
Prostitution in Post-war Britain
Samantha Caslin Julia Laite
Department of History Department of History
University of Liverpool Classics and Arch
Liverpool, UK University of London
Birkbeck College
London, UK
Genders and Sexualities in History
ISBN 978-1-137-44020-4 ISBN 978-1-137-44022-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-44022-8
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To the sex worker activists, advocates, and allies who have demonstrated,
through their tireless work campaigning for the rights and safety of people
who sell sex, just how much the Wolfenden Committee missed by not speaking
to the women they dismissed as ‘common prostitutes’.
S e ’ P
erieS ditor S reface
John Wolfenden’s Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences
and Prostitution (which was convened in 1954) has attracted the attention
of numerous historians, primarily because of its approaches to homosexu-
ality. In contrast, Samantha Caslin and Julia Laite’s Wolfenden’s Women
focuses attention on the Committee’s deliberations about prostitution. In
the 1950s, women who were labelled ‘common prostitutes’ were margin-
alized; by editing this critical sourcebook, Caslin and Laite give these
women a prominent place in debates about sex, labour, and law in post-
war Britain. Prefaced by introductory essays and organized by themes
(such as public space; prostitution outside of London; policing; law, juris-
prudence, and punishment; causes, prevention, and intervention; third
parties and exploitation; and the question of demand), the sourcebook
gives readers an insight into the lives of women who sold sex. In common
with all the volumes in the ‘Genders and Sexualities in History’ series,
Wolfenden’s Women is a multifaceted and meticulously researched scholarly
study. It is an exciting contribution to our understanding of gender and
sexuality in the past.
vii
a
ckNowledgemeNtS
We would like to thank Brian Lewis for sharing his work (and working
process) on this book’s companion volume, Wolfenden’s Witnesses. Julia
would especially like to thank Helen Self for her generosity many years ago
in sharing ideas and materials, and for her groundbreaking work on post-
war prostitution. We would like to thank the National Archives for permis-
sion to reproduce these materials for an academic purpose, as well as the
Women’s Library. Permissions were sought in the case of any material that
might still be under copyright and all due diligence was taken to contact
any individuals who might still have an interest in this material.
Note oN Style
This book draws mainly on the memoranda of evidence and transcripts of
interviews found in the papers of the Departmental Committee on
Homosexual Offences and Prostitution at the National Archives, London,
in the series HO 345/8-16. These papers were originally typed by stenog-
raphers and by the secretaries of submitting organizations and the style is
not standardized. We have maintained all grammatical infelicities and style
choices of the original documents but in places have edited the format for
consistency. We have used ellipses (…) to indicate where material has been
abridged. For more on how we have selected these excerpts and con-
structed this book, see the final pages of the introduction.
ix
c
oNteNtS
1 Introduction: Prostitution and the Law Before the
Wolfenden Committee—A Brief History 1
2 Prostitution and Public Space 21
3 Beyond London 43
4 Policing 71
5 Law, Jurisprudence, and Punishment 87
6 Brothels, Off-Street Premises, Privatization 121
7 Third Parties and Exploitation 151
8 Causes, Intervention, and Pathologization 167
9 Demand 183
10 Wolfenden’s Missing Women 201
xi
xii CONTENTS
11 The Report of the Departmental Committee on
Homosexual Offences and Prostitution 235
12 Conclusion: The Legacies of Wolfenden 289
Glossary 295
