The Legal Status of Women

 

The myth of the natural inferiority of women greatly influenced the status of women in law. Under the common law of England, an unmarried woman could own property, make a contract, or sue and be sued. But a married woman, defined as being one with her husband, gave up her name, and virtually all her property came under her husband's control.

 

Some communities modified the common law to allow women to act as lawyers in the courts, to sue for property, and to own property in their own names if their husbands agreed. Equity law developed in England, emphasized the principle of equal rights rather than tradition, equity law had a liberalizing effect upon the legal rights of women in the United States.

 

After that in 19th century, women began working outside their homes in large numbers, notably in textile mills and garment shops. In poorly ventilated, crowded rooms women (and children) worked for as long as 12 hours a day. Great Britain passed a ten-hour-day law for women and children in 1847, but in the United States it was not until the 1910s that the states began to pass legislation limiting working hours and improving working conditions of women and children; some of these labor laws were seen as restricting the rights of working women. For instance, laws prohibiting women from working more than an eight-hour day or from working at night effectively prevented women from holding many jobs, particularly supervisory positions, that might require overtime work. In the 1960s several federal laws improving the economic status of women were passed.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination against women by any company with 25 or more employees.

 

But discrimination in other fields persisted, many retail stores would not issue independent credit cards to married women but divorced or single women often found it difficult to obtain credit to purchase a house or a car.

Also, sex discrimination in the definition of crimes existed in some areas of the United States. A woman who shot and killed her husband would be accused of homicide, but the shooting of a wife by her husband could be termed a "passion shooting."

 

 

I think that this part is really important because is here where we can notice some changes in the way of seeing woman. And i think that women can do whatever they want, even if nobody help them or support them. And i can notice that is in this moment where men see that women can be helpful for them and that also can be better that them.