The Victoria Press was started by Emily Faithfull

Emily Faithfull

Emily Faithfull was an English women's rights activist.-Biography:She was the youngest daughter of the Rev. Ferdinand Faithfull,and was born at Headley Rectory, Surrey. She took agreat interest in the conditions of working-women...

 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. She generated hostility from the male-dominated Printer's Union, in London. 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 two periodicals: The English Women's Journal

The English Women's Journal

The English Women's Journal was a magazine issued by the Victoria Press in London between 1858 and 1864.It was established in 1858 by Barbara Bodichon as an organ for discussing employment and equality issues concerning, in particular, manual or intellectual industrial employment, expansion of...

and The Victoria Magazine, both of which promoted the employment of women.