Changing Position of Women in Society

Question 1

Knowledge

What would happen to a woman once married?

Answer 1

Once married, husband and wife became one person under the law. The husband would gain all his wife’s property once they were married.

Question 2

Knowledge

WHat was the only way a married women could reclaim her wealth and property?

Answer 2

If she was widowed.

Question 3

Knowledge

The Married Women’s Property Act 1884

Answer 3

Gave women the right to property that they gained before and after marriage.

Question 4

Knowledge

The Matrimonial Causes Act 1884

Answer 4

Denied husbands the right to lock up their wifes for refusing sex and required maintenance to be paid to separated women whose husbands had been convicted of assault.

Question 5

Knowledge

The Summary Jurisdiction Act 1895

Answer 5

Gave women who had been beaten the right to divorce.

Question 6

Knowledge

The Divorce Act 1857

Answer 6

Made women able to divorce their husband if they could prove bigamy or long-term abandonment.

Question 7

Analysis

Give an analysis point relating to what the new legislation gave women.

Answer 7

The new legislation was giving women more rights and access to their property and children and had more rights over themselves and their body.

Question 8

Analysis

Give an analysis point relating to Britain in general.

Answer 8

These rights suggested that Britain was becoming more progressive for women and that the national vote was within their grasp.

Question 9

Analysis+

Give an analysis+ point relating to a women’s role.

Answer 9

The rights that women were given were mostly linked to her role in the home and over her children, so were perhaps not so progressive for women.

Question 10

Analysis+

Give an analysis+ point relating to further progress.

Answer 10

Women were still not on an even legal footing with men, which suggests further progress was needed before women would obtain the vote.