Legal and Administrative Restrictions Affecting the Rights of Married Women to Work

Abstract

UNDER the English common law a woman, upon marrying, gave up her legal personality. It became merged with that of her husband and was lost as an entity. Under these conditions the wife's services belonged to the husband. Whether she workedin the home, in her husband's business, or for third persons, her labor was not her own but her husband's. It was not legal for her to contract for her services, though by securing her husband's consent such a contract was rendered valid. Courts held that this consent might be implied, and recognized tacit acquiescence as well as written consent. However, when contracts of this kind were made the law allowed to the husband all that the wife earned. These earnings and whatever property was purchased with them belonged to him and were subject to the claims of his creditors. Statutory changes have in large measure removed these disabilities. The last seventy-five years have witnessed the attainment of more rights and privileges by married women, and, as a general proposition, it may now be said, that in most states they have full capacity to contract for their own services, and to retain their earnings from such labor for their sole and separate use. In other words, their labor, beyond the domestic duties required by the marital relation, belongs to themselves.