1870 Married Women's Property Act

On 9 August 1870, the Married Women’s Property Act was passed. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This Act established limited protections for some separate property for married women, including the right to retain up to £200 of any earning or inheritance. Before this all of a woman's property owned before her marriage, as well as all acquired after the marriage, automatically became her husband's alone. Only women whose families negotiated different terms in a marriage contract were able to retain control of some portion of their property.

Articles

Rachel Ablow, "On the Married Woman's Property Act, 1870"

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Kelly Hager, “Chipping Away at Coverture: The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857″

Jill Rappoport, “Wives and Sons: Coverture, Primogeniture, and Married Women’s Property”

Anne Wallace, “On the Deceased Wife’s Sister Controversy, 1835-1907″

Trials of Oscar Wilde

The trials of Oscar Wilde, which occurred in April and May of 1895, have become legendary as a turning-point in the history of public awareness of homosexuality. By their close, Wilde had gone from being a triumphantly successful playwright to a ruined man, condemned to two years of hard labor for gross indecency. They garnered extensive coverage first in the London press and then in newspapers around the world; the story of the trials continues to be retold in ways that have persistent relevance for contemporary queer culture. Image: Photograph of Oscar Wilde, by Napoleon Sarony. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Andrew Elfenbein, “On the Trials of Oscar Wilde: Myths and Realities”

Women's Suffrage Procession at Coronation of George V

The "From Prison to Citizenship" banner at the Women's Coronation Procession, London, 1911. Photo by the Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images.

In this famous suffrage procession marking the Coronation of George V, the banner designed by Laurence and created by Clemence in 1908 for the Kensington Women’s Social and Political Union made one of its numerous appearances in public parades. The striking banner, “From Prison to Citizenship,” features the suffragist colours, depicting a white figure on a purple background, decorated with green vines. The design was so popular it was also incorporated into a postcard for wider distribution. Clemence personally enacted this slogan later in 1911, when she spent a week in Holloway Prison for refusing to pay property taxes until she was granted full citizenship. Her act of civil disobedience did not grant her full citizenship, but it did add strength to the movement.  Some women got the vote in 1918, but it took until 1928 for universal female suffrage to be achieved in the United Kingdom  (Liddington, Vanishing).