Abstract
In the early years of the American republic, most married women did not enjoy any rights over their property or earnings. According to the common law, a married woman was a femme covert or “covered woman,” meaning that when she married she was placed under the “protective wing” of her husband and had no independent legal status. Furthermore, any contract that a married woman entered into was considered void precisely because she was under “coverture,” carrying no independent agency status; if she wanted to enter into an apprenticeship or convey property, she needed the permission of her husband.
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© 2015 Mark D. White
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MacDonald, D. (2015). On the Question of Court Activism and Economic Interests in Nineteenth-Century Married Women’s Property Law. In: White, M.D. (eds) Law and Social Economics. Perspectives from Social Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137443762_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137443762_8
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