Married Women's Property Act 1870
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The Married Women's Property Act 1870 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allowed women to legally be the rightful owners of the money they earned and to inherit property.
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[edit] Background
Prior to this enactment any money made by a woman either through a wage, from investment, by gift, or through inheritance automatically became the property of her husband. This was because women had few legal rights and were by law not recognised as being a separate legal being - a feme sole. Legally, women were considered to be part of the property or estate of a man once they married. A long and energetic campaign by different women's groups and some men led to the passing of this Act.
[edit] Contents of the act
The Married Women's Property Act's long title was "An Act to amend the law relating to the property of married women". The most important sections of the act were:
- 1. The wages and earning made by a woman were to be held by her for own separate use independently from her husband. The meaning of wages included money made from any employment, occupation, or trade, or the use of any skill such as a literary, scientific, or artistic skill that resulted in money being made. This section also covered investments made with the money earned.
- 7. This section dealt mostly with inheritance of property. A woman was allowed to keep any property she inherited from her next of kin as her own subject to that property not being bound in a trust. She could also inherit money up to £200.
- 8. This section allowed a woman to continue to hold rented property in her own name and to inherit rented property.
- 14. This section made married women liable to maintain her children from the profits earned from her personal property. It also continued the liability of the husband to maintain his children. In effect, this section made both parents legally liable while each spouse held separate property.
[edit] Shortcomings
The act dealt mostly with the earnings of women and was not very specific about women's property rights. A major loophole was that any property a woman had in her own name legally became her husband's property, but that after the marriage she could inherit property in her own name from her next of kin. The act was not retrospective; thus, any woman who married prior to this act coming into legal effect lost all of her own property (if she had any). This greatly limited the effect this act had on women.
This law could also be easily be evaded, as any property put into a trust was not effected by this act.
The act's full significance was that, for the first time, it allowed women to legally keep their own earnings and inherit property, but also put a legal duty on women to maintain their children alongside their husbands.
