Married Women's Property Acts in the United States

This article is about United States legislation. For legislation in the United Kingdom, see Married Women's Property Act.

The Married Women's Property Acts are laws enacted by the individual states of the United States beginning in 1839, usually under that name and sometimes, especially when extending the provisions of a Married Women's Property Act, under names describing a specific provision, such as the Married Women's Earnings Act. The Married Women's Property Acts gave American married women new economic rights. Under coverture (an English common law system), married women could not own property, control their wages, enter into contracts, and otherwise act autonomously, to their husband's authority. They also did not have control over where their children lived and husbands were assumed to have sexual access (there was no marital rape).[1] [2] [3] [4]

The Married Women's Property Acts addressed the economic side of coverture, allowing women more control of wages and property. After New York passed its Married Women's Property Law in 1848, New York's law became the template for other states to grant married women the right to own property.[5]

  1. ^ Katz, Elizabeth D. (2008-09-01). "How Automobile Accidents Stalled the Development of Interspousal Liability". Rochester, NY. SSRN 2333295. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Baer, Judith A.; Goldstein, Leslie Friedman (2006). The Constitutional and Legal Rights of Women: Cases in Law and Social Change (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 264.
  3. ^ Barry, Susan (1980). "Spousal Rape: The Uncommon Law". American Bar Association Journal. 66: 1088–91.
  4. ^ Levit, Nancy; Verchick, Robert R.M.; Minow, Martha (2016). Feminist Legal Theory: A Primer (2nd ed.). New York University Press. pp. 16–17.
  5. ^ "The New York State Married Women's Property Law". Women and the American Story: A Curriculum Guide. The New York Historical Society. Retrieved 31 July 2018.