Laws Concerning Women 1854 Bodichon

Excerpts from A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women: Together with a Few Observations Thereon  (1854) Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon

Legal Condition of Unmarried Women or Spinsters

A single woman has the same rights to property, to protection from the law, and has to pay the same taxes to the State, as a man.

Yet a woman of the age of twenty-one, having the requisite property qualifications, cannot vote in elections for members of Parliament.

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The church and nearly all offices under government are closed to women.  The Post-office affords some little employment to them; but there is no important office which they can hold, with the single exception of that of Sovereign.

The professions of law and medicine, whether or not closed by law, are closed in fact.  …….

If a woman is seduced, she has no remedy against the seducer; nor has her father, excepting as he is considered in law as being her master and she his servant, and the seducer as having deprived him of her services. 

Laws Concerning Married Women

A man and wife are one person in law; the wife loses all her rights as a single woman, and her existence is entirely absorbed in that of her husband.  He is civilly responsible for her acts; she lives under his protection or cover, and her condition is called coverture.

A woman’s body belongs to her husband; she is in his custody, and he can enforce his right by a writ of habeas corpus.

What was her personal property before marriage, such as money in hand, money at the bank, jewels, household goods, clothes etc becomes absolutely her husband’s, and he may assign or dispose of them at his pleasure whether he and his wife live together or not.

A husband has a freehold estate in his wife’s lands during the joint existence of himself and his wife, that is to say, he has absolute possession of them as long as they both shall live.

Money earned by a married woman belongs absolutely to her husband; that and all sources of income, excepting those mentioned above, are included in the term personal property.

The legal custody of children belongs to the father.  During the lifetime of a sane father, the mother has no rights over her children, except a limited power over infants, and the father may take them from her and dispose of them as he thinks fit.

Divorce

The law cannot dissolve a lawful marriage; it is only in the Legislature that this power is vested. It requires an act of Parliament to constitute a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, but the investigation rests by usage with the Lords alone, the House of Commons acting upon the faith that the House of Lords came to a just conclusion.

This divorce is pronounced on account of the adultery in the wife, and in some cases of aggravated adultery on the part of the husband.

The expenses of only a common divorce bill are between six hundred and seven hundred pounds, which makes the possibility of release from the matrimonial bond a privilege of the rich.

A wife cannot be plaintiff, defendant, or witness in an important part of the proceeding for a divorce, which evidently must lead to much injustice.

Laws Concerning a Widow

A widow recovers her real property, but if there is a settlement she is restricted by its provisions.  She recovers her chattels real if her husband has not disposed of them by will or otherwise.

A widow has a right to a third of her husband’s lands and tenements for her life.