Women's Rights
❤️ Click here: The rights of single women in the early 19th centure
At the time, the ability to vote was restricted to wealthy within British jurisdictions. As the Victorian era drew to a close, however, fashions were showing indications of a popular backlash against excessive styles. The protocol guarantees comprehensive rights to women including the right to take part in the political process, to social and political with men, and to control of their , and an end to.
Why We Lost the ERA. In 1874 the first successful typewriter went on sale It was invented in the USA by Christopher Sholes and the telephone was invented in 1876. Why certainly they should! Before the 20th century housework was so time consuming it left married women no time for work.
Women and the Law in Early 19th Century - Celtic women could rule in their own right.
Author: Timothy Crumrin, Conner Prairie Historian Publication forthcoming. Not to be reproduced without permission. A woman's gender and marital status were the primary determinants of her legal standing in Indiana and much of America from 1800 to 1850. By custom and law she did not enjoy all of the rights of citizenship. In the legal realm women were decidedly dependent, subservient, and unequal. National and state constitutions included little mention o f women. Even though Hoosier women were enumerated in the census which paved the way for statehood and had to share the burden of taxation, they were not allowed to vote or hold office. Married women generally were not allowed to make contracts, devise wills, take part in other legal transactions, or control any wages they might earn. One of the few legal advantages of marriage for a woman was that her husband was obligated to support her and be responsible for her debts. It is highly doubtful that these latter provisions outweighed the lack of other rights, particularly in the area women faced the most severe restriction, property rights. Under them, a single woman had few special strictures placed upon her property rights. Her married sisters, however, found themselves subordinate to and bound by the decisions of their husbands. He also gained control of any wages or other income accrued by his spouse. Technically, this meant that a man could do anything he wished with his wife's material possessions. He could sell them, give them away, or simply destroy them as was his wont. Married women were also forbidden to convey sell, give, or will any property. How strictly this was adhered to depended upon the couple. Each was different and, like today, decision-making was shared to varying degrees. Legally, however, the husband had the final say — if he chose to exercise it. Common law principles were generally accepted throughout Indiana, with the noted exception of utopian New Harmony, where Robert Owen's followers espoused beliefs in the true equality of women. There was some solace for married women under common law besides charging the husband to support his wife. The law of dower not to be confused with dowry was also a part of its tenets. Dower stipulated that one-third of the husband's estate one-half if the couple was childless was reserved for the wife. Although this might seem a small share for a lifetime's efforts, considering the small concern shown for women in other ares of common law, it seems almost enlightened by the day's standards. Dower also furnished the wife a weapon to protect herself while her husband was alive. As she was entitled to her share of the estate, no real estate transaction could be take place without her approval. This offered a means of asserting some control over her husbands actions. Indiana law recognized both dower and approval of conveyance rights. Married women had another legal ally, equity law. When adopted, the tenets of equity law could help loosen some of the strictures placed on married women — if the state and courts allowed their use. One such feature was the separate estate, in which property could be set aside under the wife's control. Such property could have been willed to the wife, brought into the marriage, or been given to her by her husband. This afforded the wife some freedom of action and protection. Indiana's law which permitted wives control of land willed to them is an example of equity law. Indiana must also be credited for several changes, mainly through the efforts of Robert Dale Owen, which somewhat bettered the condition of married women. During the 1837-1838 legislative session Owen pushed through a bill over the vehement protests of a fellow lawmaker who thought it a subversion of society that replaced dower with a provision guaranteeing women two-thirds of her husband's estate. Unfortunately, it was repealed in 1843 when some legislators still angry about the law took advantage of Owen's move to the U. Congress to strike his measure from the books. Ironically, during that same 1843 session lawmakers gave married women the power to devise wills. Indiana also afforded some protection for married women by excluding property brought into the marriage from being used to ameliorate debts against the husband's estate. By the same token, it also awarded an adulterous wife's property to the aggrieved husband forever. An aggrieved wife, however, was only entitled to her one-third share of her husband's estate. Hoosier women, then, lived under legal restrictions no worse — and in some cases better — than other American women. Again, much depended upon the couple's relationship and many wives enjoyed freedoms above those accorded by the law books. Trader and businessman John Conner allotted his wife only her minimum portion, while others were more generous. William Dyer gave his wife land and personal property exceeding one-third of his estate and Robert Colborn and S. Walls gave their wives their entire estate. Walls, though, attached an addendum typical of the time which stated in the event of his wife's remarriage, all of the estate would pass to his sons. Divorce Divorce was neither prevalent nor particularly acceptable during the first half of the nineteenth century. There were strong social and religious objections to the sundering of what many viewed as a sacred commitment. This does not mean it was virtually unknown in Indiana and the midwest. So liberal were they that Indiana might be called the Reno of the nineteenth century and a movement grew after the Civil War to reform the Hoosier state's pliant divorce statutes. Indiana was such a divorce mecca that famous archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, discoverer of Troy, moved to Indianapolis for a period in 1869 specifically to obtain a divorce. During the territorial period more than half of the approved petitions 12 of 20 were instigated by women. In 1813 legislators added to the reasons thought proper to entail divorce by allowing the granting of petitions based on abandonment and conviction of a felony. Absolute divorce was also acceptable in cases of cruel treatment by the husband which might endanger the wife. It was not a provision that simply lay unheeded on the book. The first divorce petition filed in Hamilton County was disallowed by the court and prosecutor as being without just cause. After attaining statehood in 1816, Indiana made further additions and refinements to its divorce code. By 1838 habitual drunkenness for two years or more by the husband became justification for divorce. And, in an important move, it gave the courts increased discretionary powers. It also maintained the important discretionary powers of the courts. Other provisions of the 1843 laws included protections for women. One section provided for restraints against a violent husband while the divorce was pending a sort of 19th-century restraining order and the provision for alimony and child support. If the divorce was precipitated by the husband's misconduct, the wife was entitled to immediate possession of her share of her real estate as if widowed, and was to receive the property dowry she brought into the marriage. Conversely, if the wife were the adulterer, her husband could hold her personal estate forever. The one major change was the elimination of the menso et thoro decree, which was tantamount to a permanent legal separation, but these were seldom used in Indiana, this was not a particularly important action. The net result of Indiana's softer divorce laws is difficult to judge. Indiana women certainly lived in a state that made escape from a particularly troubled marriage easier, but divorce was still seldom used as a recourse to a less than blissful marriage. No reliable figures exist, but it is certain that societal constraints worked to hold divorce to a minimum. Even during the period of increasing divorce rates after mid century, Indiana's rate never reached two divorces per thousand marriages — despite the notoriety attached to its lenient laws. Undoubtedly, the rate was even lower during the first half of the nineteenth century. There were occasional advertisements announcing an impending divorce action, but it was hardly a common, ubiquitous phenomenon. Abortion In the early nineteenth century abortion simply did not elicit as much comment or controversy as today. Though not openly encouraged — and condemned in some circles — it was not necessarily dismissed out of hand if done early enough into the pregnancy. Not until the 1820 did laws concerning abortion begin to appear in the statute books. The British Parliament, in 1803, passed a law banning abortions at any time during pregnancy, but America did not immediately follow suit. The first American abortion law was not enacted until Connecticut did so in 1821. This statute, which has been called more of an anti-poisoning bill than an anti-abortion law, accepted quickening as the decisive factor. Midwestern states were the next to adopt such legislation, with Missouri following suit in 1825 and Illinois in 1827. They were clearly patterned after the Connecticut law in both language and intent. Indiana did not adopt its first abortion law until 1835, which was also found within a grouping of laws dealing with poisoning. In the Indiana law one sees the graphic embodiment of then current notions about the medical fraternity. These earliest abortion laws must be viewed contextually to be properly understood. As mentioned, quickening was generally accepted by both the courts and the public as the pivotal issue in abortion. Abortion was not generally considered immoral or illegal if performed prior to fetal movement. Instead, it is likely further evidence that quickening was so ingrained that it need not be especially written into the statute. Why then did the years 1820-1850 see a flurry of abortion legislation? Much of it can be traced to the contemporary opinions of the medical fraternity. The anti-poisoning provisions were aimed at the sundry cathartics and emetics frequently administered by doctors. If not used carefully, such drugs could result in an abortion — a purpose for which they were indeed used intentionally. The laws were meant to deal with doctors or other purveyors of potions and remedies which might prove dangerous. The Hoosier law's mention of instruments was also reflective of the public's attitude that surgical procedures were often too dangerous and too often employed by incompetent or under-trained doctors. This is not to say that the high moral ground went unoccupied. The Catholic Church was, of course, opposed to any form of abortion, as were many other religious creeds. After the 1840s, an increasing number raised their voices against abortion on a moral basis. Thus, it was as wrong to abort before quickening as after it. This movement did not really gain steam until after mid-century when, along with an outcry stirred by botched abortion stories, it contributed to stiffer abortion legislation. Why this movement came to the fore during this period is difficult to establish with certainty, but one major reason may have been a change in those seeking abortions and why. The 1840s was the decade in which abortion was increasingly being used by married women as a means of family limitation, as opposed to previously when it was often a method of avoiding a scandal utilized by unmarried pregnant women. When abortion began to veer too closely to polite society, some may have taken more notice and sought to do something about it. It seems to have been a law little regarded and little enforced. It also seems unlikely that it prevented many women who wished an abortion from obtaining one. Chemical or natural agents for producing abortions were readily available if a woman knew where to look — and most knew exactly where to fix their gaze. Mid-wives knew all the secrets; druggists advertised appropriate potions; medical texts provided answers. To judge the relative importance lawmakers attached to abortion, one need only compare the penalties involved. Burglary's penalty was fourteen years in the state prison; murder analogous in some modern minds with abortion was a capital offense. Clearly, the state of Indiana did not equate abortion with murder, or even stealing your neighbor's silver service. Swallowing whole the maxims about the fragile female, it sought ways of lessening justice's impact even upon the guilty. A female thief was not to be sentenced to more than sixty days in the county jail for petit larceny, while a masculine felon could be carted off to the harsher state prison for three years of hard labor for the same offence. Any crime serious enough to call for a term at the state prison for men could be reduced to hard labor at the county jail for the weaker vessel. Also, unlike men, women could not be imprisoned for non-payment of a contracted debt. However, looking back, it must be doubted that these concessions to their gender made up for the losses caused by them in other areas.
The 3 Biggest Mistakes Single Women Make
Others made boxes or lace at home. The reemergence of hysteria came after the rebirth of Greek thought in the Enlightenment Period 18th century and the dissemination of the work of major figures like Charcot and Freud. Right to education First group of women who entered university in Iran The right to is a universal entitlement to autobus. Retrieved 10 October 2015. She was imprisoned several times for her actions, and she was the co-editor The Freewoman: A Weekly Feminist Review. Middle-class Victorians used the train services to visit the seaside, Large numbers travelling to quiet fishing villages such asand began turning them into sincere tourist centres, and entrepreneurs led by saw tourism and overseas travel as viable business models. As soon as they were old enough they worked on farms and in factories. In 1938 the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the female branch of the British army was formed. He print that both boys and girls saw women as castrated men, and the boy resolved his fear of castration by identifying with his father and breaking his identification with his mother. Indeed, many woman activists for suffrage and other social causes began their public work in temperance organizations. In 1919 Lo Astor became the first female MP and in 1929 Margaret Bondfield became the first female cabinet minister. The trial ofthe mayor of Taba Commune in Rwanda, established precedents that rape is an element of the crime of genocide.
