Down the centuries there have been various attempts to control and prohibit prostitution, often on religious grounds but also to keep social order. Nature though has given us that instinct to be drawn to the opposite sex, to have that sexual encounter, to pass on our genes to the next generation. Here there were brothels, pubs, beer-houses or other establishments where prostitutes could be found.
One of the main causes at this time for both vagrancy and prostitution was the increase in population and the fact that employment, for women in particular, was limited to poorly paid jobs which barely covered living expenses so, even if they did find employment, there was often a need to find a way of making extra money. For some women prostitution could be an occasional activity born out of desperation to feed themselves and or their families, to pay the rent, to keep them out of the workhouse.
For others well, they knew little else and with little societal understanding opportunities were rarely offered to help to improve their situations. Female servants often lived in and for most this meant food in their bellies and a roof over their heads. But not all employers were reasonable and young girls and women were easy targets for abuse. When this became unbearable or an employer turned them out there were few available choices.
Prostitution could beckon. A study carried out in Millbank prison into the prostitutes interned there in the late Victorian period suggests that over 50 percent had been general servants the others having worked as laundresses, char women and other menial low paid jobs. Data collected from various sources during this time showed a high proportion of young women who had lost one or both her parents or were from broken homes leaving them with a duty to provide for the rest of the family or even just for themselves; prostitution and crime were two of the few choices available to them.
Sexually transmitted diseases for these women, which they would know as the pox or the clap, was a particular hazard that without modern medicines could lead to long-term illness, deformity, madness and death.
