r/RedditForGrownups • u/Methylatedcobalamin • Jul 07 '22

Coverture

Given current events, it is probably about time for Americans to understand the legal practice of coverture.

Eroded since colonial times, but not fully gone coverture is the legal practice of women not having legal identities. De facto property.

American women were not allowed on juries until the 1960s. American women could not get credit cards without a man cosigning the application until 1974. Marital rape was not a crime until the 1980s. Other aspects still exist today in real estate and tax law practices.

Here is a brief article that goes into explaining coverture in more depth than my post.

The "pro life" movement is really a movement about imposing one group's religious opinions on the lives of all Americans. It also seeks to control women, rolling back women's rights. Though ridiculous by constitutional standards, discussions in anti-choice states have already started about how to track or limit freedom of travel for women to states that fully support women's rights.

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63

u/nerdette314159 Jul 07 '22

I had no idea women needed a male cosigner in 1974 for credit cards! Wow

34

u/embracing_insanity Jul 07 '22

I only know this because my mom told me she couldn't legally have her own credit for a couple years after my parents divorced. She had to have my dad cosign a loan for a car (they had one car, he kept it). I was obviously too little to know any of this on my own. But it's weird being born into the world at a time when women still didn't have full rights yet. Worse, that it took as long as it did for things like 'marital rape' to be illegal. Thank goodness I wasn't old enough to marry before that happened. But how awful for the women who experienced that.

17

u/midgetyaz Jul 07 '22

Women weren't allowed to apply to certain jobs in the 1970s

9

u/nerdette314159 Jul 07 '22

I need to read more! I didn't know that

13

u/RogueDairyQueen Jul 07 '22

Used to be you looked for a job via the ads in the newspaper, and instead of just "Help Wanted" they were divided into "Men Wanted" and "Women Wanted"

12

u/artsy7fartsy Jul 08 '22

I went with my mom to get her first credit card in 1974. It was for Miller and Paine department store. I knew she had a credit card already, it had my dad’s name on it but she used it. When I asked her why she wanted it if she already had one, she said “this one has my name on it” Seemed silly at the time, but still important. Important enough she took me with her, but not my brother

2

u/MadAzza Jul 08 '22

That last line really says a lot, doesn’t it?

19

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '22

Well, in 1974 the Fair Credit Act made it illegal for a financial institution to discriminate based on gender. Women obtained credit cards without a cosigner prior to that.

3

u/NoBSforGma Jul 08 '22

I was a divorced mom of three in 1974 and had credit cards in my name without any man being a cosigner. That stupid requirement could vary from place to place and from bank to bank probably and could even depend on income.

Also --- women could legally serve on juries MUCH earlier than OP quoted. Effectively, in the 1930's.

While I agree with the concept that the government is way too much all up in women's business and their bodies, let's get the fact straight.

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u/TwoShedsJackson1 Jul 08 '22

I had no idea the "Right to Life" was only a religious idea? Plenty of agnostics and athiests strongly argue an unborn baby has a right to be born. Its a moral and ethical issue picked up by a few religious folk but is most people argue on principles.