American women and the lingering implications of coverture

Abstract

Because coverture restrictions prevented most married American women from the colonial period through a good part of the 19th century from acting as their own agents at law or to have independent property rights, attempts were made to modify this legal disability. Married Women Property Acts partially remedied some of these legal disabilities, but others lingered well into the 20th century because, unlike most contracts, the marriage contract in the United States still remains unwritten and so, its terms are not defined. Even with the advent of contractual marriages in the 1970s and 1980s, coverture overtones continue to exist. While some state courts have accepted these contractual arrangements, others have not and their enforcement remains problematic “because the law still prescribes sex-differentiated marital roles and male domination.”