Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century England

Allowing a woman to leave a marriage and not be scolded or cast out, let alone getting her dowry back, was unheard of in this time period. Though a woman’s dowry was to her husband, he had no control over spending it; if she died without having children the dowry went back to her family, or if she had children they would share it equally . This was very important in protecting women from men marrying them only to take their dowry and run with it, as well as protect her children. Even having laws “restricting the use of women’s dowries, the bride prices paid for women, and the manner in which divorce can happen all point to the states recognition that women needed some legal protections from male authority” was a vast improvement in the treatment of women .

Then in 1870, the Married Women’s Property Act was in action. This act meant that wages and property earned through a wife 's own work, and investments made with that earned money would henceforth be regarded as her own. This also meant that women could hold rented property in their own name. This act also made women legally liable to maintain their children. In 1871, the first state laws specifically making wife beating illegal were passed, though proliferation of laws to all states and adequate enforcement of those laws lagged very far behind. “In 1878 a woman suffrage amendment was first introduced in the United States Congress, but it did not pass. Then in 1879, a women named Belva Lockwood became the first woman allowed to argue before the Supreme Court. Her first case was the 1880 case "Kaiser v. Stickney".” (Wikipedia, 2016)

“I’m leaving you!” or “I want a divorce!” Is what we hear now a days by women or men, but it wasn’t as easy back in the 1800s for women they had no rights, their “job was to be a meek, obedient, loving wife who was totally subservient to the men.”(Laura Donnaway). Women couldn’t leave their husbands just because they didn’t love them no more or they caught in affairs because they wouldn’t get anything because “all of her inheritance (if any existed) would belong to her husband.” (Kelley Smith). Which is why many women had to live with being treated like objects instead of human beings.

A married women could not own property, sign contracts, or own money earned from her labor. Her husband would own all things including her. From February of 1692 to May of 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Massachusetts. According to Mary Warren: Afflicted Girl Turned Accused Witch by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, Mary told the congregation “the afflicted persons did but dissemble”. Although I’m not sure what she means; the congregation took this as her confession of the girls lying. I think the men took advantage of the witch trials and turned it into a profitable gain to them. The Majority of women accused of witchcraft were lower class, middle aged, widowed, and didn’t have a man to legally represent her. Since women had no legal rights, it was easy for men to take away their possessions. This would happen by women being accused, then she would be out in jail, tried, and possibly convicted which lead to execution. In lecture three we learn that of all the women accused, sixty one percent of widowed women had no man to represent them legally. Eighty nine percent of the widowed women who executed had no man to represent them. I started to notice a pattern in this. These women were being executed because they couldn’t take a stand for themselves.

Due to a woman’s legal status as a minor, she could not own or control much of what was essential in life, such as a house or land. Even when a woman was associated with a man, “married women's lives throughout much of the nineteenth century were limited to staying home and caring for the children, tending to household chores, and working at menial jobs” (“Women’s Movement”). There were not many opportunities outside of housework for women; moreover, education was very limited until around the 1840’s (“Women’s Movement”). The funds a woman had were also attached to her husband. Families often paid men a dowry when they married off their daughters (Marshall).

In the 18oo’s, everything that a woman could do was dictated by the man in her home. They were treated as property, first of their father, then to the man they would marry. A woman’s only life goal was only ever to get married. Marriage was the only way for a woman to keep wealth (until 1839, when the Married Women’s Property Acts allowed women to be legally separated from their husbands) was through the marriage of a wealthy gentleman, despite everything else. Once married, women were expected to stay home and care for their children. Women would also rarely escaped their lives in order to attend to their guests and the state of their home. Women were easily separated into three classes: the

Legal rights for married women were a status that was very clear but in this case women were known to be lower to men at this point and time. In economic, political, or civic matters in the Anglo-American society of the eighteenth century the law did not recognize the wives’ independence. Also the future first ladies had somewhat little power. With the death of her first husband, Dolley Todd Madison had to fight with her deceased husband's inheritors for control of his estate. Abigail Adams was an early believer of women's rights.

In the past, developed countries didn’t give the chance for women to vote, own property, and even work in a job that wasn’t deemed fit for a woman by these standards. Khan states, that in British law, when a woman marries her husband, she becomes his property. Any possessions she once owned now belong to him. Like a child, the wife must obtain permission from her husband to spend

The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 is finally giving married women the right to legally own their own money that they obtain, and it also allows married women to inherit property. Before this Act was passed, married women were not considered as separate individuals by the law. However, single and widowed women were considered as separate legal beings who could own their own property. So why did marriage strip away and limit women's rights when it is only the joining of hands? Married women could not perform any legal action without their husband's consent and approval. In the 1850s, a group of women led by Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon campaigned for the law to be passed with no success, and a few years ago the attempt was rekindled that

Female sovereignty was uncommon in Renaissance England. The social structure of the family assured the subjugation of woman under man. Daughters remained under the care of their fathers until they were married, at which time they became subject to their husband's authority. Economics ensured the wife's dependence on her husband. Unmarried and widowed women retained far more legal rights than married women, therefore, "for a woman, marriage meant the loss of her legal and economic rights, and therefore a dependence on the (chosen) man" (Motte 29). Even though marriage often meant a loss of legal rights, those daughters who had the good fortune to choose their mates faired better than those whose marriages were arranged.

Men, in the 19th century did not have respect for women. After the marriage, the women was consider as a "toy" and as an "animal" to men. "Essentially, the wife "belonged" to her husband. He had a right to the person and prosperity of his wife; he could use gentle restraint upon her liberty to prevent improper conduct, he could beat her without fear of persecution. Thus, it was very clear that the wife is dead in law"-Barbara Welter, The American Woman. Women had to suffer all this treatment because it was their choice. They would get marry and be financially secured or they would be single and support themselves. Most of them choose the first choice because; working was worse then some

Her children would then inherit the dowry as part of their estate ("Women"). Just as the dowry, the woman did not fully become part of her husband’s family when she married. She was a part of her own family. If her husband mistreated her or her children, or was too lazy to be a sufficient provider or even insult her family, those were grounds to divorce him. To do this, she must call in witnesses. She must announce her divorce in front of said witnesses at her front door, then at their bed ("Women"). At the time of a divorce, the woman would be given back her dowry that was brought with her at the start of the marriage (The Role of Women). Children automatically stayed with their mother in case of a divorce. It depended who the older children stayed with according to status and wealth of the two families. The children still held their rights to inheritance, even after divorce ("Women"). Divorce is a prime example of how women of this culture had it better than many other cultures.

The 18th century was a period of slow change for women’s rights in England. The Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution were coterminous at this point in history and brought the new thoughts about women’s rights to England in the late 1700s. In the 1700s women were not as concerned with voting as they were with divorce, adultery, and child custody rights. However, as the population of single women grew throughout the 18th and 19th century the concern for more rights for women became prevalent (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011). By 1851, 43 percent of women in England were single and began to campaign frequency and sometimes forcibly for their rights (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011). Reformer

Monogamy was out, ‘free love’ thrived, and divorce represented freedom. Enough people wanted divorce by the late 1960’s that the pressure was on to change the law.

Further exacerbating the situation, rights normally enjoyed by women were often withdrawn when she married. Indeed, a woman gave up so many civil and property rights upon crossing the threshold that she was said to be entering a state of "civil death."Married women generally were not allowed to make contracts, devise wills, take part in other legal transactions, or control any wages they might earn.