The Married Women's Property Act, or more formally “An Act to Amend the Law Relating to the Property of Married Women” (33 and 34 Victoria c. 93), received the royal assent in August 1870. A Bill to Amend the Law on Married Women's Property had originally been presented in 1857, and re-presented in April 1868. It was reintroduced in February 1870, heavily modified by the House of Lords, passed back to the Commons and finally became law in August.
The Act comprised twenty clauses which had been mangled by the concerted opposition and needed to be revised in 1874 and again in 1880. The Act secured the rights of women to their own earnings from employment or trade carried on separately from their husbands, and from “the exercise of literary, artistic or scientific skill”. The
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Citation: Clark, Robert. "Married Women’s Property Act". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1369, accessed 23 November 2024.]
