Warren's business partner and has in fact invested 40,000 pounds in the venture. In his own words, "The fact is, it's not what would be considered exactly a high-class business in my set -- the county set, you know.... Not that there is any mystery about it: don't think that. Of course you know by your mother's being in it that it's perfectly straight and honest. I've known her for many years; and I can say of her that she'd cut off her hands sooner than touch anything that was not what it ought to be.... But you see you can't mention such things in society. Once let out the word hotel and everybody says you keep a public-house."
So, the problem is much less with what an woman does in order to ensure her living, but more on how that is hidden so that to be able to fit into the rigid Victorian framework. The further reason for that is that the Victorian society does not want to know about the underlying reasons that force a woman into prostitution in those times, mainly because such a thing would open their eyes and would make them understand the symptomatic non-functionality of parts of the Victorian society. Hypocrisy helps hide things and make people ignorant of other existences.
However, the play is also a play about poverty and wealth and about oppression and freedom and I think that this is where the second part of the thesis can be best argued. Mrs. Warren does make her feeling out of prostitution (or rather by running a prostitution business), but exactly the fact that her profession places her outside the norms of society make her a much freer...
On one hand, she refuses the society rule by the nature of her trade, on the other, the society itself marginalizes her. Nevertheless, she is free: she does not need to abide by righteous, imposing rules.
With this, in my opinion, Shaw emphasizes the fact that, despite the condition of women in society, leading them into prostitution, women still find enormous resources in order not only to survive, but also to become more respectable, in some senses, than other women who are seen as better integrated. The way Mrs. Warren evades the rules of society makes her much more adaptable to things and much freer as an individual human being. If one acknowledges that, to some degree, that is also one of the objectives of any individual, then Mrs. Warren is a positive character and a winner in many ways.
This is even easier to argue if we consider the fact that Mrs. Warren is a true survivor. She has fought her way not only through life, like any individual would, but also through the society's conventions only to emerge even stronger and more powerful, with a successful business and the courage to turn her back and refuse hypocritical conventions.
In my opinion, Shaw's play is about the woman's condition in society, but through a much wider perspective in which the author not only is compassionate about women in society and about their subdued role, but also shows that one can actually succeed to move beyond the rigorous demands and rules of a society often not generous with its members.
