History of Women, Marriage and Property
Before the early 1800s, married women in the United States (indeed in most of the world) had no property rights and held it only through the forbearance of fathers or brothers. Under British common law a woman required protection of her lord (and master). She literally became one with him when she married and ceased to exist as a legal entity.
In fact, for the 199,800 years since anatomically modern humans have been on earth, women WERE property. That’s 10,000 generations in which a woman was as much a man’s possession as a chair or a horse. Dominion over women passed from father to husband to do with as he pleased.
When the husband died, she got part of the income, but on her death it went to the husband’s heirs or her son. Girls could inherit real property only if they had no brothers, a law in force in England until 1925.
Divorce Difficult for Men and Women in Colonial America
In Colonial America, divorce was rare and difficult for men and women. You could divorce someone who couldn’t have children and most colonies allowed permanent separations but forbade remarriage. Men and even women would “divorce” a spouse by leaving town, and bigamy was widespread. Single women could sue in court, but a married woman had to get her husband’s permission.
Interestingly, a woman who never married or a widow without children could retain control of any assets she inherited or acquired. In the United States, married women began to get limited property rights in the 1700s. Progress accelerated with the 1848 Married Women’s Property Act in New York. Husbands could no longer appropriate property without consent from their wives.
Divorce Gives Relief From Unhappy Marriages
While abused women have always outnumbered hen-pecked husbands, both sexes welcomed more liberal divorce laws to free them from unhappy marriages. No-fault divorce became generally accepted in the 1970s and divorces peaked, although the rate remains close to 50 percent.
Compared to 100 years ago, women today marry later, have more education and are less likely to need a “shotgun” wedding due to widely available birth control. All three of those factors have helped reduce the divorce rate in recent years. Although people marry later in life, eventually nearly 90 percent of people do so.
Status of Women and Property Today
Women control nearly 60 percent of the wealth in the United States and make more than 83 percent of the consumer purchases today. The number of wealthy women in the U.S. is growing twice as fast as the number of wealthy men and nearly half of American millionaires are women. Some estimate that by 2030, women will control as much as two-thirds of the nation’s wealth.
Unfortunately women in many developing countries still do most of the work, control few assets, and lack basic human rights. With persistence and determination, women in the developed world have changed the laws that affect themselves; now they need to reach out and help other women achieve the same rights.
Women—and the men who support their efforts—have never had greater opportunity to help raise the status of women all over the world. Look around you and take the hand of another woman to make a better world.