Abstract
Women's subordination is not new in the world. As society became human rights conscious, many countries started abrogating or scrapping discriminatory laws and attitudes towards women, in particular married women. However, it has taken Eswatini more than 100 years to deal with the fact that the common law principle of marital power discriminates against women.
 This paper traces the reception of marital power into the legal framework of Eswatini and how advocacy groups on women's rights and freedoms have opposed women's subordination, fortified by research. This paper presents a desktop review of selected literature and case laws touching on women's emancipation in Eswatini.
 This research work is significant in that it adds to the body of knowledge by recording the origins of women's subjection to marital power and their eventual emancipation in the landmark case of Sacolo v Sacolo (1403/2016) [2019] SZHC 166 (30 August 2019).
Highlights
This paper presents a desktop review of selected literature and case laws touching on women's emancipation in Eswatini
Article 1 of CEDAW defines discrimination against women so as to embrace all facets of human rights and fundamental freedoms42 as follows: Discrimination against women43 shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on the basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field
The Sacolo case is a landmark case for women's emancipation in Eswatini, especially women married in community of property
Summary
How to cite this article Mavundla SD, Strode A and Dlamini DC "Marital Power Finally Obliterated: The History of the Abolition of the Marital Power in Civil Marriages in Eswatini" PER / PELJ 2020(23) - DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/17273781/2020/v23i0a7504
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