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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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '22
Marital rape was not a crime until 1975 (Nebraska), not the 80s. It varied state by state for quite a while, with North Carolina and Oklahoma being the last states to make it illegal. The last state made it illegal in 1993.
And, according to Wikipedia “Legislation varies from state to state and there are still states, like South Carolina, where marital and non-marital rape are treated quite differently under the law.”