Did a typical Victorian woman have to obey their husbands?
For much of the Victorian era, married women had the same legal standing as children. They did not have the right to own property, start a business or open a bank account in their own name. In legal matters, they were not permitted to sit on juries or act for themselves in the criminal or civil courts. A male intermediary was required for matters which would today be considered quite ordinary, such as making a claim of inheritance. In family life, women surrendered all their property to their husband’s on marriage, and he could then do as he wished with it. She could not even make a legally binding will. The husband also had the power to cast the wife from his home, and could institute divorce proceedings through an ordinary court (in the UK a woman had to apply to Parliament for an ‘Act’ to obtain a divorce, which was a very practical way of limiting the numbers who did applied!). If her husband went to court to divorce her, she was not permitted to defend herself. A divorced woman wa
