ABSTRACT
The vagaries of industrial capitalism meant that wages, for families and women, were often precarious. In periods of difficulty, some women could turn to prostitution as a short-term measure to make ends meet. Magdalene Asylums aimed to rescue and reform women from prostitution by providing women with accommodation, food and training them to work in domestic service or as laundry hands. The Glasgow Asylum, conceived in 1812 and opened in 1815, was Scotland’s second such asylum; Edinburgh Magdalene Asylum opened in 1797. Stevenson MacGill was a Church of Scotland minister interested in social institutions, notably prisons, lunatic asylums and schools, and who worked for the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge. It is notable that the boys’ home accompanying the establishment of the Magdalene Asylum was to redeem boys from committing ‘crimes’ rather than reforming their sexual identities. Asylums exploited the relationship between Christian redemption and the fallen woman for fundraising purposes.
