Being a thing

Marriage is the only route to financial and social security open to most women. But married women remain virtual slaves, as defined by the influential jurist Sir William Blackstone (1723-80) in his Commentaries on the Laws of England:

By marriage the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during her marriage, or at least is incorporated or consolidated into that of her husband, under whose wing, protection and cover, she performs everything.

The practical effect of this legal position is that a married woman is a chattel, a thing belonging to her husband. A crime committed against her can be prosecuted only by her husband, who owns the rights to her body as well as to her property and to their children. The marriage ceremony itself - binding religiously and legally - ensures this when a woman vows to obey her husband. It would not be until 1991 that a man could be charged with the crime of raping his wife.

Divorce as a means of escaping a bad marriage - virtually impossible before the mid-19th century - requires an Act of Parliament and costs hundreds of pounds.