Wives & Property : : Reform of the Married Women's Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England / / Lee Holcombe.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Holcombe, Lee,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1983
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (320 p.) :; halftones throughout

In the 1870s Millicent Garrett Fawcett had her purse snatched by a young thief in London. When he appeared in court to testify, she heard the young man charged with 'stealing from the person of Millicent Fawcett a purse containing £1 18s 6d the property of Henry Fawcett.' Long after the episode she recalled: 'I felt as if I had been charged with theft myself.' The English common law which deprived married women of the right to own and control property had far-reaching consequences for the status of women not only in other areas of law and in family life but also in education, and employment, and public life. To win reform of the married women's property law, feminism as an organized movement appeared in the 1850s, and the final success of the campaigns for reform in 1882 was one of the greatest achievements of the Victorian women's movement. Dr Holcombe explores the story of the reform campaign in the context of its time, giving particular attention to the many important men and women who worked for reform and to the debates on the subject which contributed greatly to the formulation of a philosophy of feminism.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- 1. 'The First Point in the Women's Charter' -- 2. 'The Virtual Slavery of Marriage' -- 3. 'The Guardian of the Weak and Unprotected' -- 4. 'The Germs of an Effective Movement' -- 5. 'The Wind Out of Our Sails' -- 6. 'The Peculiar Character of the Modern World' -- 7. 'The Burthen of Proof -- 8. 'That Legislative Abortion' -- 9. 'What an Emancipation is This!' -- 10. 'The Equality of Two' -- APPENDIXES NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEXES