CRM/LAW C113 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Feminist Legal Theory, Coverture
17 May 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
In the early nineteenth century, under english common law, single women enjoyed the same rights as men to enter contracts, to hold and manage property, to sue and be sued. But when a woman married, those rights transferred to her husband, according to the doctrine of coverture. Under coverture, the husband acted as a kind of agent for his wife, exercising all legal power over his wife"s property and contractual rights, with few restrictions. Legally speaking, marriage made man and woman one. Marriage laws of this era were extremely harsh toward women, treating them more as legal property than as legal persons. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the tide slowly began to shift. Feminists successfully urged state legislatures to pass the married women"s. Property acts, abolishing coverture and granting married women the same contract and property rights as unmarried women. For most of the nation"s history, no lawful marriage was possible between white and black americans.
