Married Women's Property Act 1882

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The Married Women's Property Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. C.75) was an act of the English Parliament of 1882 that significantly changed English law regarding the property rights of married women. Among other things, it allowed married women to own and control property in their own right.

The law applied in England (and Wales) and Ireland, but did not apply in Scotland. This "Married Women's Property Act" (Eng .: Property Law for married women ) was a model for similar legislation in other British territories. For example, Victoria passed such law in 1884, New South Wales in 1889, and the rest of the Australian colonies passed similar laws between 1890 and 1897.

The property rights of English women

Sex guardianship of the husband

English law described the role of the wife as 'feme covert', emphasizing submission to the husband and placing her under the gender guardianship of the man who was her master, protected and directed her. After marriage, husband and wife became one person by law because the woman's property was given to the man and her identity ceased before the law. Any personal property a woman acquired during her marriage automatically passed to her husband unless it was previously intended for her own use. If a writer acquired a “copyright” before marriage, it went to her husband afterwards. Furthermore, a married woman could not make a will or dispose of any property without her husband's consent.

Disadvantage in the case of inheritance

Women often couldn't inherit everything either. Male heirs were more likely to get the realities (land, land), while female heirs with brothers were sometimes limited to getting personal possessions, which included clothing, jewelry, household furnishings, food and all movable property. In the event of an inheritance where there was no last will, the English law of primogeniture gave the eldest son the right to all property ownership, and a daughter inherited the property only if there was no male heir. This primogeniture without a will remained in the British law books until the Law of Property Act 1925 simplified the archaic law of realities and brought it up to date.

Fathers, aware of the unhappy situation of their daughters, often provided them with a marriage good or a dowry or brought “ needle money ” into a contract before the marriage , which provided them with an income that was separate from that of their husbands. In contrast to wives, unmarried women or widows were in full control of their property and inheritance, owned land and were responsible for disposing of their property. Because legally unmarried adult women were to be regarded as 'feme sole', as independent and responsible persons. Once married, property could not be regained until they became widows.

Caroline Norton (part of a picture by Frank Stone), around 1845

Caroline Norton Divorce Case - Reform Beginning

The dissolution of a marriage, whether initiated by the husband or wife, usually left a divorced woman in poverty, as she had no legal rights to family property and the care and upbringing of her children remained the right of her divorced husband.

The Caroline Norton legal case of 1836 - which involved the divorce of a well-known young writer from her brutal husband and which received attention in the highest social circles - impressively illuminated the injustice of English property and family laws when it comes to the Dissolution of a marriage went. He brought so much movement into society's thought and so much support that there were some laws to improve the legal relationship of the divorced woman with their children ("Custody of Infants Act 1839", "Matrimonial Causes Act 1857") and finally the Path to the " Married Women's Property Act " of 1870, the Married Women's Property Act 1870 , was taken.

The law

After several years of political lobbying, the new Married Women's Property Act of 1882 addressed the complaints of English women. The law changed the common law doctrine that the marital guardianship of the husband included the wife's right to separate property and the right to buy and sell property. The wives' legal identities were also restored, as the courts were forced to recognize that a husband and wife were two separate legal individuals, in the same way that women were 'feme sole'. The married woman's legal rights now also include the right to sue and be sued in court. Penalties a woman had to pay were now her own responsibility instead of her husband's. Married women were now responsible for their own debts, and any commercial business they owned was now subject to the laws of bankruptcy. Furthermore, married women were also allowed to own securities in their own name.

By 2016, most of the law had been changed. The remaining sections can be found as sections 6, 10, 11, and 17. Among them, the most important was Section 11, which provided that a widow - in her own right - could enforce the life insurance of the deceased husband in her favor.

The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 makes it possible for men and women to use contracts concluded by others for their own benefit.

See also

literature

  • Amy Louise Erickson: Women and Property in Early Modern England . Routledge, London 1993, ISBN 0-415-06267-5 (English).
  • Dorothy Stetson: A Woman's Issue. The Politics of Family Law Reform in England, 1850–1895 . Greenwood Press, London 1982, ISBN 0-313-23087-0 (English).
  • Mary Lyndon Shanley: Feminism, Marriage, and Law in Victorian England, 1850–1895 . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1989, ISBN 0-691-07819-X (English).
  • Ben Griffin: Class, Gender, and Liberalism in Parliament, 1868-1882: The Case of the Married Women's Property Acts . In: The Historical Journal . tape 46 , no. 1 , March 2003, ISSN  1469-5103 , p. 59–87 , doi : 10.1017 / s0018246x02002844 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ p. 26 of the Act
  2. ^ Bridget Hill, Women, Work and Sexual Politics in Eighteenth-century England, London: Blackwell, 1989.
  3. ↑ Hiam Brinjikji: Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century England . In: [1] Retrieved March 30, 2019
  4. ↑ Hiam Brinjikji: Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century England . In: [2] Retrieved March 30, 2019
  5. ^ Anne Laurence, Women in England: 1500-1760, A Social History, New York: St Martin 's, 1994.
  6. ^ OPSI, Married Women's Property Act 1882
  7. ↑ Trevor May, An Economic and Social History of Britain . New York, Longman 1987, p. 90.
  8. ^ Text of the "Married Women's Property Act 1882" Retrieved March 30, 2019