Summary of the Act:

The Married Women’s Property Act was put forth in 1870 and later repealed in 1882 by a different property act. This act gave women married after 1870 the right to own and control various forms of property. While the act seemed to be about protecting the rights of women in a male governed society, recent historians have come to the conclusion that this act more so protected newly married couples from fraud. The act protected young women’s assets before entering into a marriage.

The women who most benefited from this act were single and widowed women. Despite this not creating equal rights for women, it did make a step in the right direction for women. Before this, once women were married all their property and any sort of wealth belonged to their husband. In addition to becoming the husband’s property, that property isn’t returned to the wife upon her husband’s death but can be instead willed away to someone else. Another part of before the act, stated that a husband could sell or give away the wife’s property at any point in their marriage. Then, however, it couldn’t be willed away.

Moral of it, married women had no control over their property once they were married. This act was important in protecting women from losing their livelihood and personal goods. A married woman could keep her earnings separate from her husband’s affairs. She could also have control over her own personal property like bank accounts, public stock and funds, and shares. Finally, this also meant she could have a more active role in society and her own life.

Sources for summary:

Combs, Mary Beth. “‘A Measure of Legal Independence’: The 1870 Married Women's Property Act and the Portfolio Allocations of British Wives.” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 65, no. 4, 2005, pp. 1028–1057. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3874913. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.

Griffin, Ben. “Class, Gender, and Liberalism in Parliament, 1868-1882: The Case of the Married Women's Property Acts.” The Historical Journal, vol. 46, no. 1, 2003, pp. 59–87. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3133595. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.

Supplemental Material:

This is a clip from the newest Little Women that features Amy talking to Laurie about how marriage restricts her ability to own property. She states that her money would become his and if they had children, the children would also be his. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D8nRpJsQlk