Inventing a ‘Lesbian Age of Consent’? The History of the Minimum Age for Sex between Women in the UK

Abstract

This article analyses historical and contemporary debates over age of consent legislation regulating sex between women in the UK. A minimum age for sexual activity between females was created by the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922, which removed ‘consent’ as a defence to the offence of ‘indecent assault’ against a girl under the age of 16, yet prosecutions remained extremely rare until recent years. The article analyses parliamentary debates surrounding the creation of this legislation to investigate whether and how sex between females was represented. It then examines how the subject was addressed at a series of historical moments when age of consent laws were subject to official review. It is argued that the recent invention of a ‘lesbian age of consent’ in popular and professional legal discourse signals changes in the ways in which the law is interpreted and implemented. In conclusion, the article argues that while a standardization and equalization of the law applying in male-female, male-male and female-female contexts is desirable, an appreciation of the specific form and history of the age of consent applying to sex between females raises particular questions concerning the impact of reformulating age of consent laws.