The Spinster and Her Enemies - Feminish

CHAPTER 3
‘The sort of thing that might happen to any man’ 1
Feminist campaigns and politics around the sexual abuse of
children
The history books have paid scant attention to campaigns against
the sexual abuse of girls. Where age of consent legislation has
been mentioned historians have tended to see it as the result of
a reactionary, puritanical, anti-sex lobby. It has been taken out
of the context of what was actually a massive, multifaceted
campaign on the issue. This campaign included struggles to
gain women magistrates, women police and women doctors to
deal with abused girls, for reserved playgrounds for children in
parks, plus a campaign of public education designed to point
out the bias of police, judges and juries and to gain better
treatment for the girl victims throughout the legal process and
after it.
The feminist indignation at the sexual abuse of girls stemmed
from their general concern to protect women and girls from the
exercise of aggressive male sexuality and male violence. Sexual
abuse of girls was seen specifically as an abuse of power by
adult men. This was clear in the campaign from 1885 to 1908
to gain incest legislation. Feminists were determined that all
forms of abuse of power to gain sexual gratification would be
heavily penalised, so that male relatives would be included in
a category which comprised employers, stepfathers, etc.
We think that not only should there be a special law against
incest, but also when an offence is committed by any person
in a fiduciary position there should be severer punishment.
Guardians, schoolmasters, employers of all kinds, foremen
in factories, managers of places of amusement, have a power
in their hands over young girls which makes it far more
difficult for a girl to resist or protect herself than in ordinary
cases. 2
54