You Can Steal Her Virginity But Not Her Doll: The Nineteenth Century Campaign to Raise the Legal Age of Sexual Consent

Authors

J. Shoshanna Ehrlich, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Abstract

The article examines the 19th-century campaign to raise the age of sexual consent, driven by reformers who sought to protect young girls from exploitation and encode moral values into law. They argued that girls lacked the maturity to consent to sex and that losing virginity was a significant life-altering event. The campaign reflects both protective intentions and efforts to control female sexuality, particularly among working-class girls.

Disciplines

Law | Sexuality and the Law

Recommended Citation

J. S. Ehrlich, You Can Steal Her Virginity But Not Her Doll: The Nineteenth Century Campaign to Raise the Legal Age of Sexual Consent, 15 Cardozo J. Equal Rts. & Soc. Just. 229 (2009).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cardozoersj/vol15/iss2/2