After all, unsettled debts would damage a man's economic status among local traders and could potentially land him in gaol [jail]" (Bailey, 2002, p.357). "Furthermore, 10 per cent of the secondary complaints in the records of marital difficulties were made by husbands accusing their wives of extravagance and financial mismanagement, from 1660-1800 in English legal history (Bailey, 2002, p.359).
While by its nature coverture was patronizing and discriminatory, women in practice were able to use the doctrine to protect themselves, and even as a tool of social empowerment -- or revenge against their husbands. However, no matter how 'creative' women might be within the bounds of the law, there could be no denying coverture's inherent contradictions -- for example, how could widows be presumed to have so much more wisdom upon their husband's death, to administer property, when before they were denied this agency? There are records of feminist organizations lobbying against its presumptions as early as the 1750s (Bailey 2002, p.359).
Efforts to change the laws began to come to fruition, long before women won the right to vote in either America or England. For example, the Married Women's Property Act: 1848, New York State, held: "Any married female may take by inheritance, or by gift, grant, devise, or bequest, from any person other than her husband, and hold to her sole and separate use, and convey and devise real and personal property, and any interest or estate therein, and the rents, issues, and profits thereof, in the same manner and with like effect as if she were unmarried, and the same shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband nor be liable for his debts" (Lewis, "Married Women's Property Act: 1848, New York State, 2007). It also allowed for the real and personal property of married...
Thus, a relative did not have to make a specific provision in a will to ensure his (or her) female inheritors had sole dispensation over the property, and this also acted as an incentive to leave more money and property to women, as it would not necessarily pass out of the family's hands upon her marriage.
Records of significant economic activity of women in lands where coverture existed belie the idea that women were kept 'quiet' by its strictures, and ways to circumvent the law, either through specific provisions in wills, or by creative use of the law by women was possible. Still, no matter how loosely enforced, coverture left women vulnerable at best to the 'will' of their husband, both in the metaphorical and legal sense, and few women -- and men, perhaps, given the dangers of being bankrupted by an irate spouse -- would mourn its demise.
Works Cited
Bailey, Joanne. "Favored or Oppressed? Married women, property and 'coverture' in England, 1660-1800."Continuity and Change. 17 (3). 2002. 351-372. 5 Nov 2007. http://eprints.ouls.ox.ac.uk/archive/00000860/01/Bailey_2002.pdf
Coverture." The Electric Law Library. 2007. 5 Nov 2007. http://www.lectlaw.com/def/c325.ht
Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Married Women's Property Act: 1848, New York State."
About.com. 2007. 5 Nov 2007. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/marriedwomensproperty/a/property_1848ny.htm
Lewis, Jone Johnson. "What is Coverture?" About.com. 2007. 5 Nov 2007. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/laws/g/coverture.htm
Up from Coverture." Time Magazine. 20 Mar 1972. 5 Nov 2007. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942533,00.html
