Who, in your opinion, made the most significant contribution to improving the lives of British women

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Who, in your opinion, made the most significant contribution to improving the lives of British women?

        There are many different ways in which someone can improve the lives of others, and, although many people improved the lives of British women, Josephine Butler made an invaluable and large contribution to many women’s lives from 1868 – 1886.

        The health of women improved due to the efforts of some women, mainly Annie Besant, Josephine Butler and Edith Cavell, which helped to improve the general lives of British women. Besant wrote articles on birth control, bringing home to women that they did not have to have babies if they did not want to, which improved the health of many women, especially the unmarried women of the middle classes, who did not want babies. She also helped improve the health of working class women by publishing an article outlining the dangers of phosphorus fumes that women workers encountered in the Bryant and May match factory. The article also complained about the low wages paid to women in this factory, which involved in concessions being made to the women who worked there. She also helped children to improve their lives, securing free meals for the undernourished, and free medical examinations for children in primary schools.

Edith Cavell, on the other hand helped men and women alike in regaining health. She became a nurse, and gave tremendous help in the outbreak of Typhoid in Maidstone in 1897, receiving the Maidstone Medal for her work. When the Germans invaded Belgium in 1914, she decided to go to Brussels to help in a hospital there. She then gave her life for her country, smuggling Allied soldiers back to health and away through her hospital when Brussels fell into German hands, and was shot in 1915 for her actions.

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        Josephine Butler contributed to the health and lives of women in several ways. She helped to repeal the Contagious Diseases Act, which only appealed to women. This therefore improved the health of many women, who were suffering from this act, being forced into prostitution by it. She then went on to stop child prostitution, which involved people buying children to use in brothels, often virgins, which forced them into prostitution for the rest of their lives. She publicised this, which helped bring the Criminal Law Amendment Act, which raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen.

        The increasing freedom ...

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