Prostitution During The Progressive Era

Prostitution has been an intriguing criminal offense that has been frowned upon since 1910 when the Mann Act was put into place which prohibited transporting prostitutes across state lines. Because it is up to the states to deem prostitution illegal, Nevada has allowed ten of its counties to permit prostitution while the rest of the country has made it a criminal act. Although it has been criminalized within the last 100 years, women selling their services has been around since the beginning of civilization beginning in 2400 BCE with the ancient Sumer’s. It is estimated that there are 70,000 prostitutes in the US currently and that number is not going down (Brewer et al. 2000). During the Progressive Era, many states decided that it was immoral, …show more content…
This was seen by their countless movements including civil rights, health care, labor, and most important for this paper, women’s rights. White-slavery came out of this reform and is defined by low wages and intolerable working conditions. This term was used mainly during the labor movement to give workers a voice against their bosses. It did not take long for the abolitionists to change the meaning to prostitution. In 1870, Victor Hugo wrote to a British reformer, “the slavery of black women is abolished in America, but the slavery of white women continues in Europe and laws are still made by men in order to tyrannize over women.” (Keire 7, 2001) Reformers changed the way that they were approaching prostitution from sin to economic analysis and this led them to be able to gain more support from the public. When they did this, the amount of support skyrocketed. Prostitution was illegal in most states at this time, but it was not enforced by the police and therefore, could go unharmed. Chicago was one of the main cities to take up against prostitution, causing all of their brothels to close down in 1912. Within six years, dozens of cities shut their brothels down as …show more content…
By allowing it, prostitutes are required to get regular exams to check for STD’s and AIDS. This decreases the amount of diseases that get spread around much like the legalization in Nashville in 1863. If prostitution was legalized, hundreds of millions of dollars would be available to the state and federal governments because of taxes on the sales. Along with the increased amount of money the government would have, law enforcement would be able to focus on violent offenders rather than women and men would are trying to make a living. With being in a controlled environment, such as a brothel, the prostitutes would be less likely to become victims of beatings and other heinous acts. The opposition to the legalization of prostitution says that it is still immoral, and states should not condone the acts while others say that by legalizing it, the states are only increasing the number of women and men who want to become