The Smritis regarded marriage as an essential sanskara (religious obligation). A wife was not just a patni (wife) or grihapatni (housewife), but a dharmapatni (sacred union) as well as the ardhangini (half of him) and without her, he was incomplete. However, during the last few years, many couples have embraced the trend towards egalitarianism in marriage without accepting its full implications. As a result of liberalization, social changes, education, awareness, modernization, evolution of nuclear families and economic strains, the dependence on the sole earning member of a family became heavy, which led to involvement of women in contributing towards the income of the family. Other reasons behind increase in working women include feministic movements (like those started by Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Rabindranath Tagore), western influence, increasing crimes against women like domestic violence, dowry deaths, policies encouraging women like reservations. In the western world, during the days of war and recession, women forsook their traditional roles as housewives and entered into labour force, thus enabling them to earn separately. Thus, the woman had to face the challenge of being a successful wife, mother and career woman. Women have always been financially dependent on their husbands since two distinct rights implicit in a marriage include the right to reside in the matrimonial home and the right to financial settlement at the termination of marriage. The patriarchal system demanding women to live under the roof of the husband was reflected in texts of Manu, Yajnavalkya, and Vishnu which enjoined that husband is the Lord for the wife whom she should obey and remain faithful forever. The texts of Hindu law say “let fidelity continue until death”. The wife was given the position as “the woman is half her husband and completes with him”. While the old Hindu law stressed on the wife’s implicit obedience to her husband, it did not lay down any procedure for compelling her to return to her husband against her will. The ancient notion of “Lord and Master” led to the concept which facilitated men to choose the matrimonial home. For a better understanding of the concept of “matrimonial home” a reference can be made to provisions laid down in section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 in the form of restitution of conjugal rights. This provides for restoration of the matrimonial home and the conjugal rights in case one of the spouses leaves the society of the other without any reasonable excuse. Matrimonial rights are the rights which husband and wife have towards each other, society, comfort and affection. Marital rights include the enjoyment of association, sympathy, confidence, domestic happiness, and comforts of dwelling together in the same habitation, eating meals at the same table and profiting by the joint property rights as well as the intimacies of domestic relations. But with increase in the number of working women, drastic changes have been noticed in the family as well as in the society and have affected the conjugal rights of the husband as well the matrimonial home. The scope of the paper extends to the Hindu law only. Detailed inclusion of maintenance has not been made owing to the fact that the rights of working women is not just about the economic aspect involved but also their right to work. The main focus has been on working women, conjugal rights of the husband and the choice of a matrimonial home in such cases. Within the family and change within, focus has been laid on the husband since the controversy arises when the wife leaves the husband’s home and not his parents’ home.