Tradition and Change in England and Spain: White Slavery and the New Woman

On July 1885, the Pall Mall Gazette published «The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon» which graphically exposed the fact that young white girls were being kidnapped for sexual exploitation. The articles not only threw Victorian society into a state of moral panic, but also accomplished the overdue implementation of some legislative measures, not only in England, but in other European countries. Apprehensively –and echoing the political discourse of the time–. George B. Shaw and Felipe Trigo, through his work, denounced the moral, sexual and economic exploitation of women as well as the lack of coherence between their training, their passive role in society and lack of opportunities. Defying the moral values that enslaved women, these authors propose a model of a new educated, independent, and emancipated woman taking a transcendental role in the transformation of society.