The Spinster and Her Enemies - Feminish

‘HENPECKING’
of clause 3, would find their way into any Bill that was presented
as a result of the Select Committee’s report. They published a
manifesto and convened a conference in the Women’s Institute
building in January 1921 to discuss the Bill, and promote their
own model Bill.
The AMSH favoured a limited Bill calling only for clauses
raising the age of consent for boys and girls to indecent assault
and sexual intercourse, the abolition of the reasonable cause to
believe clause, extension of the time limit, and increased
penalties for brothel keeping. The Bill of 1921 was streamlined
to the AMSH recommendations to make it non-controversial
and introduced into the House of Lords. The government said
it was willing to give facilities for the Bill provided it would
pass through all its stages as an agreed Bill. The Bill was defeated
because of the addition at third reading stage in the House of
Commons of a lesbian amendment.
The AMSH sent a letter to some peers including the Law
Lords making their views on the amendment, which was
modelled on the Labouchere amendment of 1885 which
criminalised male homosexuality, known. They said they
accepted no responsibility for the new clause which had not
been before any parliamentary standing committees and had
not been considered by any of the 59 national societies which
supported the Bill. 22 The AMSH did not wish to express any
opinion on the subject matter of the amendment but protested
the way in which it had been added. They saw the amendment
as an attempt to destroy the Bill for which they had worked for
so long. The new clause was rejected when the Bill was sent
back to the Lords and the Bill was defeated since it was no
longer an agreed Bill. The AMSH issued a memo on the defeated
Bill to the press and to the co-operating societies:
The CLA Bill was wrecked in the House of Commons last
night, and the impression has been given that it was wrecked
by amendments made to the Bill by the House of Lords. This
is quite a wrong view. The Bill was deliberately wrecked by
those in the Commons who are determined not to give girls
under 16 effective protection against seduction. 23
The Bill was adopted the next year as a government Bill. It was
again violently attacked in the Commons and only allowed to
proceed by the Home Secretary promising to accept an
amendment retaining the reasonable cause to believe clause for
men under the age of 23. The Bill received the royal assent on
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