Before the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870, women were basically dehumanized when they entered into a marriage. “The accepted social subordination of a woman and a wife was further substantiated by the law. Basically, upon marriage, a woman became a legal non-person (Norbert, 1). Prior to 1870, debates regarding divorce, married women’s property, and child custody revolved around different ideas of what constituted “the good marriage” (Ablow, 1). The Married Women’s Property Act changed the way marriage was thought about in England. Progressives and conservatives disagreed about what made a marriage “good.” Conservatives claimed that coverture guaranteed sympathetic communion between spouses, while progressives claimed that legal equality was important for husbands and wives to fully enter into one another’s feelings (Ablow, 1). The act ultimately sided more with the progressives.

The Act set the stage for considering married women legally independent and responsible...