Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century England
The property rights of women during most of the nineteenth century were dependent upon their marital status. Once women married, their property rights were governed by English common law, which required that the property women took into a marriage, or acquired subsequently, be legally absorbed by their husbands. Furthermore, married women could not make wills or dispose of any property without their husbands' consent. Marital separation, whether initiated by the husband or wife, usually left the women economically destitute, as the law offered them no rights to marital property. Once married, the only legal avenue through which women could reclaim property was widowhood. Women who never married maintained control over all their property, including their inheritance. These women could own freehold land and had complete control of property disposal. The notoriety of the 1836 Caroline Norton Case highlighted the injustice of women's property rights and influenced parliamentary debates to reform property laws. The women's movement generated the support which eventually resulted in the passage of the Married Women's Property Law in 1882. England's mid-nineteenth century focus on married women's property rights culminated in the transformation of the subordinate legal status of married women.
The property owned by women in Victorian England was usually inherited from fathers. To protect the status of their daughters, most fathers included them in the distribution of the patrimony, however, the type of property inherited by sons and daughters differed. Amy Louise Erickson notes that "Fathers normally gave their daughters shares comparable in value with those of their brothers, although girls usually inherited personal property and boys more often inherited real property" (19). The more valuable real property inherited by the sons refers to freehold land, which is the actual land. Personal property referred to copyhold land, which was usually a mansion and its land held by a lord at will, and leasehold land, which was leased to individuals for life. Therefore, copyhold and leasehold land were legally secured for the life of the tenant or longer, depending on the agreement. Real property also included clothing, jewelry, household furniture, food, and all moveable goods. However, social customs held that household property and equipment belonged to the women.
once married, women lost all property rights to her husband (did not matter how rich or how poor they were
Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
In the beginning of the 1840s and into the 1850s, a rather modest women’s reform was in the process. This group was full of visionaries that began a movement that would soon lobby in change and this movement was the groundwork of equality for women and their right to vote within in the United States. Despite their efforts this movement required a length of seventy years to establish this necessarily equality and the right for all women to vote along the side of men. According to the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION “After male organizers excluded women from attending an anti-slavery conference, American abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott decided to call the “First Woman’s Rights Convention.” Held over several days in
" SECTION 1. The property, both real and personal, which any married woman now owns, as her sole and separate property; that which comes to her by descent, devise, bequest, gift or grant; that which she acquires by her trade, business, labor or services, carried on or performed on her sole or separate account; that which a woman married in this State owns at the time of her marriage, and the rents, issues and proceeds of all such property, shall, notwithstanding her marriage, be and remain her sole and separate property, and may be used, collected and invested by her in her own name, and shall not be subject to the interference or control of her husband, or liable for his debts, except such debts as may have been contracted for the support of herself or her children, by her as his agent. The Married Women 's Property Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c.75) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that significantly altered English law regarding the property rights of married women, which besides other matters allow...
A house is not a home if no one lives there. During the nineteenth century, the same could be said about a woman concerning her role within both society and marriage. The ideology of the Cult of Domesticity, especially prevalent during the late 1800’s, emphasized the notion that a woman’s role falls within the domestic sphere and that females must act in submission to males. One of the expected jobs of a woman included bearing children, despite the fact that new mothers frequently experienced post-partum depression. If a woman were sterile, her purposefulness diminished. While the Cult of Domesticity intended to create obliging and competent wives, women frequently reported feeling trapped or imprisoned within the home and within societal expectations put forward by husbands, fathers, and brothers.
Credit cards have a history stemming back to the mid 1900's, when there were two types of cards, both of which are still around, the card for specific stores, such as Sears, and the card for the occasional convenient spending when you didn't have the money you needed right away. The difference, however, between now and then is that only the extremely financially stable were using the latter of the two cards. The cards, such ...
During the 1800s, society believed there to be a defined difference in character among men and women. Women were viewed simply as passive wives and mothers, while men were viewed as individuals with many different roles and opportunities. For women, education was not expected past a certain point, and those who pushed the limits were looked down on for their ambition. Marriage was an absolute necessity, and a career that surpassed any duties as housewife was practically unheard of. Jane Austen, a female author of the time, lived and wrote within this particular period. Many of her novels centered around women, such as Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, who were able to live independent lives while bravely defying the rules of society. The roles expected of women in the nineteenth century can be portrayed clearly by Jane Austen's female characters of Pride and Prejudice.
Worth, M. J. (2011). Nonprofit management: Principles and practice. (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
In the early nineteenth century, masculinity and femininity were in a state of transition. While the Romantic era 's male supremacy values were being replaced by Victorian gender equity conceptions; ideologies of 'natural ' characteristics of men and women, separate spheres, and disability emerged and have rested in the minds of people decades into the twenty-first century. In 1870s Britain, people knew where they belonged and law and social customs kept them there. Non-existent in the political realm, women were blockaded from the work force and denied many jobs outside the of domesticity –the work and knowledge within the realm of the household. Married women were denied any rights to property which included their own children. As
Shakespeare and Petrarch, two poets popular for their contributions on the issue of love, both tackle the subject of their work through sonnet, yet there are key contrasts in their style, structure, and in the way, each approaches their subjects. Moreover, it is clear that in "Sonnet 130," Shakespeare in fact parodies Petrarch's style and thoughts as his storyteller describes his mistress, whose "eyes are in no way as the sun" (Shakespeare 1918). Shakespeare seems, by all accounts, to mock the exaggerated descriptions expanded throughout Petrarch’s piece by giving an English poem portraying the speaker’s love in terms that are characteristic of a flawed woman not a goddess. On the other hand, Petrarch's work is full of symbolism. In reviewing "Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere, through “Introduction to Literature and Arts,” Petrarch’s utilization of resemblance and the romanticizing of Petrarch's female subject are normal for the Petrarchan work. The leading major contrast between the two poems is the piece structure utilized (McLaughlin).
Shakespeare’s sonnets are numbered in a sequential order and adjacent sonnets often have similar content. Throughout Shakespeare’s sonnets, he covers many subjects, such as interest in the life of a young man, his love for a young man, and his love for a dark haired woman. In sonnets 57 and 58, Shakespeare discusses how love is like slavery in its different manifestations. The object of the narrator’s love has a dominating power over the narrator, which controls him and guides his actions. Shakespeare shows in sonnets 57 and 58 that love can be displayed by using many different routes such as viewing love as a controlling force, exploring the theme of time and waiting in regards to love, and the question of the physical state of being of love.
Wood, Jane. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning And Shakespeare's Sonnet 130." Notes & Queries 52.1 (2005): 77-79. Humanities International Complete. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
Though ballads and Sonnets are poems that can depict a picture of someone’s beloved, they can have many differences. For instance, a Ballad is a story in short stanzas such as a song would have, where as a sonnet typical, has a traditional structure of 14 lines employing several rhyme schemes and adheres to a tight thematic organization. Both Robert Burn’s ballad “The Red, Red, Rose, and William Shakespeare’s “of the Sonnet 130 “they express their significant other differently. However, “The Red, Red, Rose depicts the Falling in new love through that of a young man’s eyes, and Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 depicts a more realistic picture of the mistress he writes about; which leaves the reader to wonder if beauty is really in the eyes of the beholder.
...ey buy things using credit without taking into consideration that life is always changing, there are always some unexpected bumps in the road that catch us off guard and can change our money situation, they are too concerned with being young and having fun, getting things the easy way. Some struggle because of the life situations they were thrown into, but most of them are struggling because they put themselves there and are too unwilling to change their lifestyle to get to a better place. Then there are those who do care but pursuing the dream career they want has left them swamped with school loans. Young people lack the knowledge and responsibility to handle credit cards and taking care of their debt, and some are just trying to get the job they dreamed of since they were young, leaving them paying for it later on in life mentally, emotionally, and financially.
The majority of Elizabethan sonnets reflect two major themes: time and love. William Shakespeare, too, followed this convention, producing 154 sonnets, many of which deal with the usual theme of love. Because the concept of love is in itself so immense, Shakespeare found several ways to capture the essence of his passion. Therefore, in his poetry he explored various methods and used them to describe the emotions associated with his love for a mysterious "dark lady." These various ideas and views resulted in a series of sonnets that vibrantly depicts his feelings of true, undying love for his lady. Instead of making the topic less interesting, as some might expect, Shakespeare's myriad approaches serve to further the reader's knowledge about the sheer power of true love. Three of Shakespeare's methods that show his ability in this respect are the motif of dreams and thoughts, the examples of the extent of love, and Shakespeare's desire for his sonnets to aid or glorify their love.