Victoria Press

The Victoria Press was a printer started by Emily Faithfull in London, in 1860.

Faithfull was a member of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. She was convinced that work as a compositor could be a well-suited trade for women seeking occupation (by the nineteenth century, this was generally a well-paid industry). Faithfull learned type-setting. She founded the press, and then went on to train and hire other women as compositors for her shop.

Faithfull generated hostility from the male-dominated London Typographical Society. The Union denied women access to compositor's work, using the justification that women lacked the mechanical ability and the intelligence to be compositors.

Faithfull however persevered, and her press continued for years. Publications from her press included The English Women's Journal (1860-1866) which promoted the employment of women. In 1863 she began publication of a monthly The Victoria Magazine, in which for eighteen years she continuously and earnestly advocated the claims of women to remunerative employment.

References

• EMILY FAITHFULL: Victorian Champion of Women's Rights by James S. Stone (Toronto: P.D. Meany, 1994)