Women in Public, 1850-1900 by Patricia Hollis

Author:Patricia Hollis [Hollis, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General
ISBN: 9780049000346
Google: ljjuAAAACAAJ
Publisher: G. Allen and Unwin
Published: 1979-01-15T01:17:53+00:00

6.1 Brief Summary of the Laws

The Queen Regnant in all respects fills the office of King; she has the same rights, prerogative and duties; and all that is said in the words of the law of the regal office, is as applicable to the Queen Regnant as to a King.

A Queen Consort is considered by the law as unlike other married women. She can herself purchase land and make leases, receive gifts from her husband, and sue, and be sued alone. She is the only wife in England who has these rights.

Legal Condition of Unmarried Women or Spinsters. A single woman has the same rights to property, to protection from the laws, and must pay the same taxes to the state, as a man …

A woman duly qualified can vote upon parish questions, and for parish officers, overseers, surveyors, vestry clerks, etc.

If a woman’s father or mother die intestate (i.e. without a will) she takes an equal share with her brothers and sisters of the personal property (i.e. goods, chattels, moveables, leases for years of houses or land, stock shares, etc.), but her eldest brother, if she have one, and his children, even daughters, will take the real property (i.e. not personal property, but all other, as freehold houses and lands, etc.) as the heir-at-law, males and their issue being preferred to females; if, however, she have sisters only, then all the sisters take the property equally. If she be an only child, and has no parent surviving, she is entitled to all the intestate real and personal property.

The Church and nearly all offices under government are closed to women. The Post Office affords some little employment to them; but there is no important office which they can practically hold with the single exception of that of sovereign. The professions of law and medicine, whether or not closed by law, are in England closed in fact.* Women may engage in trade, and may occupy inferior situations, such as matron of a charity; sextoness of a church; and some parochial offices are open to them. Women are occasionally governors of prisons for women, overseers of the poor,** and parish clerks. A woman may be a ranger of a park …

Any person guilty of certain fraudulent practices to procure defilement of any woman or girl, under the age of twenty-one, commits a misdemeanor, and may be imprisoned with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding two years. Unless a promise of marriage has been made in writing, or overheard, a seduced woman has no remedy against her seducer.

Her father may maintain an action against the seducer, it being supposed that he stands in the place of a master, and sustains a loss of service in consequence of the pregnancy of his daughter.

There is no direct punishment for seduction, but the use of violence is visited with penal servitude for life, or not less than five years; or, with imprisonment for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour. All persons aiding in the perpetration of rape are punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment.

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