Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century England :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century Eng pop The proportion rights of women during most of the nineteenth century were dependent upon their marital status. Once women married, their property rights were governed by English common law, which indispensable that the property women took into a marriage, or acquired subsequently, be legally absorbed by their husbands. Furthermore, married women could not make wills or dispose of any property without their husbands consent. married separation, whether initiated by the husband or wife, usually left the women economically destitute, as the law offered them no rights to marital property. Once married, the only legal avenue finished which women could reclaim property was widowhood. Women who never married maintained control over all their property, including their inheritance. These women could own freehold land and had complete control of property disposal. The notoriety of the 1836 Carolean Norton Case highligh ted the injustice of womens property rights and influenced parliamentary debates to reform property laws. The womens movement generated the support which eventually resulted in the passage of the Married Womens Property Law in 1882. Englands mid-nineteenth century focus on married womens property rights culminated in the transformation of the subordinate legal status of married women. The property owned by women in Victorian England was usually inherited from fathers. To protect the status of their daughters, most fathers included them in the distribution of the patrimony, however, the type of property inherited by sons and daughters differed. Amy Louise Erickson notes that Fathers normally gave their daughters shares corresponding in value with those of their brothers, although girls usually inherited personal property and boys more often inherited real property (19). The more valuable real property inherited by the sons refers to freehold land, which is the actual l and. Personal property referred to copyhold land, which was usually a mansion and its land held by a lord at will, and leasehold land, which was leased to individuals for life. Therefore, copyhold and leasehold land were legally secured for the life of the tenant or longer, depending on the agreement. Real property also included clothing, jewelry, place furniture, food, and all moveable goods. However, social customs held that household property and equipment belonged to the women.