{{Short description|British social researcher and educator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Christina Violet Butler | other_names = C. V. Butler | birth_date = 25 January 1884 | birth_place = Oxford, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|19 May 1982|25 January 1884|df=y}} | death_place = Oxford, England | alma_mater = Society for Home Students, Somerville College, Oxford | occupation = {{hlist|Social researcher|Educator}} | notable_works = Social Conditions in Oxford in 1912 | father = Arthur Gray Butler }} '''Christina Violet Butler''' (25 January 1884 – 19 May 1982) was a social researcher and educator active in Oxford. She was known for her 1912 study ''Social Conditions in Oxford'' which recorded the lives of working class citizens in the Edwardian city. She also taught economics, women's studies, and trained social workers in Oxford.
== Early life and education == Butler was born at 14 Norham Gardens, Oxford on 25 January 1884<ref name=":4">{{Cite ODNB|last=Harrison|first=Brian|date=2004|title=Butler, (Christina) Violet|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-37250|url-access=subscription|access-date=26 November 2021|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/37250|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}}</ref> and lived there until 1949. Her father, Arthur Gray Butler, was a law and history academic at Oriel College, Oxford. Her mother worked in charitable causes involving the moral welfare of women.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Series 1: C. Violet Butler (1884-1982)|url=https://womenofoxford.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/violet-butler/|url-status=live|access-date=24 July 2021|website=womenofoxford.wordpress.com|date=25 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724213849/https://womenofoxford.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/violet-butler/ |archive-date=2021-07-24 }}</ref> Her aunt was feminist and social reformer Josephine Butler.<ref name=":4" /> Butler was home-schooled by her parents and governess until she was 14, after which point she attended Wycombe Abbey.<ref name=":1" />
Butler studied modern history at Society for Home Students (later St Anne's College, Oxford) from 1903-1905 and was awarded a first-class degree,<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/traditionsofsoci0000unse/page/n9/mode/2up?q=%22violet+butler%22|title=Traditions of social policy : essays in honour of Violet Butler|publisher=Basil Blackwell|year=1976|isbn=0-631-17130-4|editor-last=Halsey|editor-first=A. H.|editor-link=A. H. Halsey|location=Great Britain|pages=46|access-date=25 July 2021|via=The Internet Archive}}</ref> although this was not formally awarded as she was a woman.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Peretz|first=Elizabeth|title=C Violet Butler, Progressive Thinker and Social Reformer, 1884-1982|url=https://www.spi.ox.ac.uk/files/violetbutler-progressivethinkerandsocialreformerpdf|url-status=live|access-date=24 July 2021|website=Department of Social Policy and Intervention|format=PDF|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190915115751/https://www.spi.ox.ac.uk/files/violetbutler-progressivethinkerandsocialreformerpdf |archive-date=2019-09-15 }}</ref> She also gained a teaching diploma at London University.<ref name=":4" /> In 1905, Butler gained early experience in research whilst helping her sister collect information and write sections of an article on industries for the ''Victoria County History''.{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=46}} She embarked upon an economics diploma at Somerville College, Oxford in 1906-7, largely self-taught, but with mentoring from Sidney Ball and Francis Ysidro Edgeworth. She was awarded a distinction.{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=47-48}}
== Career ==
=== Early social work === Inspired by her interest in helping adolescents, Butler became an honorary secretary to the Council for the Industrial Advancement of Young People in Oxford, which encouraged school leavers to enter technical classes and skilled employment. Butler and her helpers visited the homes of around 400 boys throughout 1910-11 to talk about their lives after leaving school.{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=28}} She worked with the Women's Industrial Council to undertake national research on Domestic Work during 1910. The conclusions of her research do not call for an end to the class system on which domestic work is based, but focus on best practice and good employers.<ref name=":2" />{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=28}}
Butler was involved with the Charity Organisation Society, and by 1910 was a member of the Oxford branch's Invalid and Crippled Children's sub-committee. She remained on the general committee until the collapse of the branch in 1922.{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=49-50}} Butler believed in mutual respect between classes and in the strength of a community. She argued that NGOs and the state should provide strong social support.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Peretz|first=Elizabeth|title=Violet Butler: Relating Social Research to Social Action: a lifetime's work|url=https://www.spi.ox.ac.uk/event/violet-butler-relating-social-research-to-social-action-a-lifetimes-work|url-status=live|access-date=24 July 2021|website=Department of Social Policy and Intervention|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215104401/https://www.spi.ox.ac.uk/event/violet-butler-relating-social-research-to-social-action-a-lifetimes-work |archive-date=2018-12-15 }}</ref>
=== ''Social Conditions in Oxford'' === ''Social Conditions in Oxford'' is a survey conducted by Butler in 1912 in which she recorded the experiences of working-class citizens in Oxford. It was one of several provincial surveys inspired by Seebohm Rowntree's ''Poverty: a Study of Town Life'' (1901), the others being conducted in Norwich and Cambridge.<ref name=":4" /> It builds upon a previous article by Butler published in the ''Economic Review'' in 1910.<ref name=":1" /> Her aim with ''Social Conditions'' was to improve the conditions of poor people living in Oxford by encouraging volunteers and statutory workers to cooperate, centralising the support in the city.<ref name=":2" /> ''Social Conditions'' largely focussed on the lack of opportunities and high levels of casual work among teenagers in Oxford. Butler was less focussed on the structural causes of unemployment, instead believing that hard work could solve social issues.<ref name=":1" />
Butler was responsible for the data collection, analysis, research, and production of the manuscript of ''Social Conditions''. She drew from both qualitative and quantitative data, arguing that both were "equally dispensable". Part of her research involved conducting interviews with local people. She faced practical difficulties as a woman researcher and required chaperones to visit lectures and the library.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />
Butler later said of the study: "I am not proud at all of the book", citing its apparent lack of originality and patronising tone. However, both contemporary and later sources praised the study.{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=27}} ''The Athenaeum'' commended the personal aspect of ''Social Conditions'', stating "the Oxford of her picture never ceases to be a city of living people."<ref name=":1" /> Brian Harrison wrote an essay in ''Traditions of social policy'' covering the history of the survey, describing it as "an unusual achievement, and an important document in its own right".{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=27}} The study provided Butler with academic credentials and she became an acting tutor in economics at St Anne's College from 1914–1945.<ref name=":4" />
=== Barnett House === alt=Photo of the exterior of Barnett House.|thumb|Exterior of Barnett House. In 1914, Butler was part of the conception of Barnett House, a research centre in Oxford.<ref name=":0" /> She was tutor-secretary for women students and secretary for social training from 1919–1948.<ref name=":4" /> She was on Barnett House's council from 1920.<ref name=":0" />
After the First World War, Harold Plunkett and the Carnegie UK Foundation helped Barnett House to undertake a rural regeneration project. Butler had piloted development of cooperation in the countryside and development of a scheme for village schoolteachers, recording her research approach in ''Village Survey making - an Oxfordshire Experiment'' in 1928. Through this work, Butler encouraged schoolchildren to become researchers into their own communities, collecting information and distributing it to the community. She also trained schoolteachers alongside her colleague, Miss Simpson.<ref name=":2" />
She became director of the centre and remained in that role until 1946. Throughout all her time at Barnett House she was never paid.<ref name=":1" /> Today, Butler's name can be found on the door of Barnett House and her picture can be found on the wall.<ref name=":0" />
=== Other voluntary work === Butler was active in juvenile clubs, playing fields, adult education and community centres, both locally and nationally.<ref name=":2" /> She retired after the Second World War but remained active in Oxford and maintained an interest in the development of post-war policy in the city.{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=x-xi}}
== Legacy == As an educator in Oxford, Butler influenced the generations of social workers between 1914–1945.<ref>{{Cite book|last=du Boulay|first=Shirley|url=https://archive.org/details/cicelysaundersfo0000dubo/page/30/mode/2up?q=c.+v.+butler|title=Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern Hospice Movement|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=1984|isbn=0-340-35103-9|pages=33|access-date=25 July 2021|via=The Internet Archive}}</ref> Many of her students went on to launch their own local projects across the UK, India, West Africa and Malaya.<ref name=":2" /> For Butler's ninetieth birthday, A. H. Halsey and his colleagues decided to put together a collection of essays on social policy in her honour: ''Traditions of social policy : essays in honour of Violet Butler.''{{Sfn|Halsey|1976|p=vii}} Brian Harrison recorded 3 oral history interviews with Butler in September, October and November of 1974, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=London School of Economics and Political Science |first= |title=The Suffrage Interviews |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/collection-highlights/the-suffrage-interviews.aspx |access-date=2023-12-11 |website=London School of Economics and Political Science |language=en-GB}}</ref> The collection also contains an interview with her sister, Ruth Butler. Butler talks about her Oxford survey, Barnett House and the Lady Margaret Hall Settlement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About – Lady Margaret Hall Settlement |url=https://lmhs.org.uk/?page_id=286 |access-date=2024-01-12 |website=lmhs.org.uk}}</ref>
After Butler's death, British civil servant John Redcliffe-Maud, who had been taught by Butler in the 1930s, described her as "an outstanding example of the British volunteer".<ref name=":2" /> 14 Norham Gardens, where Butler was born, now has an Oxfordshire Blue Plaque in her honour.<ref>[http://www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/butler.html Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board: Violet Butler]</ref>
== References == <!--- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using <ref></ref> tags, these references will then appear here automatically --> {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://archive.org/details/socialcondition00butl/mode/2up?q=social+conditions+in+oxford ''Social Conditions in Oxford'' by C. V. Butler, 1912] via Internet Archive
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, C. Violet}} Category:1884 births Category:1982 deaths Category:People from Oxford Category:British women educators Category:Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford<!-- Society of Oxford Home Students --> Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford