Women, wealth and economic change: An assessment of the impact of women's property law in Wentworth County, Ontario, 1872–1927

Abstract

Historical wealth micro-data from Wentworth County, Ontario examines the evolution of female and male wealth holding in the wake of 19th century property rights legislation. The results reveal that male wealth was greater than female wealth in Wentworth County but that over time the gap declined. Female wealth rose continually in Wentworth County over the period 1872 to 1927 and by 1927 average female wealth was 61% that of males compared to about 17% in 1872.However, despite the onset of the married women's property legislation in the late nineteenth century and in particular the Ontario Married Women's Property Act in 1884, women's wealth does not appear to be consistently and significantly related to variables designed to capture the effect of the property law legislation using regression analysis. Given late nineteenth century economic and social factors that operated to improve the material and wealth status of women, the property rights legislation was a correlating rather than a causal factor in the growth of women's wealth. At best, the property law changes may have induced more financial asset holding within the wealth portfolios of women though male financial asset share of wealth also increased. As a result, the gender redistribution of wealth that began in the late 19th century was part of a broad set of social and economic changes rather than the result of a set of legal changes.