French morality, under the regulation system

This translation brings to English ears a selection of Mademoiselle Julie Daubié’s exhaustive study on the plight of France’s most destitute women in the nineteenth century. Drawing on years of fieldwork among the urban poor, she documents how legal and police frameworks have turned prostitution into a municipal expense rather than a social problem. The opening sections lay out the stark contrast between lofty parliamentary promises of moral reform and the lived reality of women forced into the streets.

Daubié argues that true progress demands more than punitive measures; she calls for laws that punish seduction, guarantee decent wages, and grant police equal authority over men and women in vice districts. She condemns any system that treats women as inherently impure and highlights the explosive growth of “houses of infamy” after the Great Exhibition. The narrative combines statistical observations with moral urgency, urging an international push for uniform, humane legislation.