The Casualties of Industrialisation in Glasgow

Abstract

The Victorian era saw the colossal growth of Glasgow as an industrial city; some prospered but many more suffered the ravages of industrial capitalism. This paper will focus on a figure that came to symbolise the social dislocation of this era - the ‘prostitute’. The definition of the ‘prostitute’ far exceeded a meaning of ‘sex worker’ and encompassed a meaning of a working class woman who subverted middle class norms without necessarily being sexually active. We will explore who the ‘prostitute’ was in practise and argue that ‘juvenile delinquents’ were politically ‘prostitutes’. We will draw parallels between preventative industrial schools and adult reformatories such as Magdalene Homes, arguing that they had the same functionality. The paper aims to highlight the resistance of working class women to these attempts at social control and ultimately concludes that they retained a morality that was distinctly their own.

Keywords

• Glasgow
• Victorian Era
• Sex work
• Prostitution
• Juvenile Delinquency
• Magdalene Girls