Need for reform

Women in the early nineteenth century had inherited a status that was underprivileged in law, religion and social status relative to men.

• It was held that a woman's place was in the home, but married women had few legal rights as individuals. They could not own property, keep what they earned, sue on their own behalf or make contracts.
  
  
• A married woman might risk her life to bear a child but once born the child belonged to her husband. He was the legal parent, the children took his family name and the mother had no right to custody if for any reason she had to separate from her husband.
  
  
• The status of single women was low, their employment prospects restricted, many were dependent on their relatives and they were often subject to ridicule as 'old maids.'
  
  
• Men traditionally took the initiative in social encounters with women, but in sex-related transgressions such as adultery, prostitution and illegitimacy, women were penalised to a far greater extent, both by law and by society.
  
  
• Most churches preached obedience, modesty, purity and chastity to women, but not so frequently to men. Even when exhausted or in danger of death from childbearing, women were often advised to give the sexual needs of their husbands priority over their own welfare.
  
  
• A minority of better-off families used pre-marriage settlements so their daughters could evade property restrictions, but even for them the other problems remained.

The English common law concept by which a woman lost her legal rights as an individual when she married was called 'coverture.' The rich protected their daughters from material want by marriage settlements. They set up trusts for their benefit which were managed by male relatives or friends. It is estimated that about ten per cent of women benefited from such arrangements. Women, happily married to good husbands would hardly be affected and many were not even aware of the restrictions in the background.

The fact that a husband could deprive his wife of her own earnings and property was troublesome for women earning their own living, women with obstinate, mean, violent or criminal husbands and those who were separated, or needed to separate from their husbands. It also limited the credit of women running their own businesses.

On the other hand, men were obliged to support their wives - but only sufficiently to maintain life and health. They also had to pay the debts of their wives, but if necessary they could give public notice that they would no longer honour those debts.

Questions

1. Consider the ways in which women were underprivileged in the early nineteenth century. Select the four factors you think were the most serious and give reasons for your choice.
2. Explain the concept of coverture.
3. Suggest reasons for this legal concept.
4. How did rich parents try to protect their daughters from material want?
5. Suggest reasons for depriving married women of the right to legal custody of their children.
6. Suggest reasons why it was women who were penalised to a far greater extent both by law and society for sex-related transgressions.
7. Suggest reasons why clergy frequently preached 'obedience, modesty, purity and chastity to women, and less frequently to men.'
8. Discuss the value of the extract from the 1912 pastoral letter of the RC Bishop of Clonfert quoted above as historical evidence for attitudes to women at the time.

Activities

1. Write a speech or article raising married women's awareness of injustice in the 1830s.
2. Write a letter from a wealthy man to his daughter who is about to marry in the 1830s.
3. Write a letter advising a business woman who is about to marry in the 1830s.
4. Study Caroline Norton in the next section and in Documents at the end of this section.