What is coverture?
Q: What is coverture?
A: Coverture is a legal practice that originated from English common law, which holds that a man and a woman are a single legal entity, that of the husband.
Q: In what way does coverture affect women?
A: Under coverture, a married woman loses her own legal obligations and rights and becomes "covered" by her husband. A woman did not legally exist and did not own anything.
Q: What happens to the identity of a married woman under coverture?
A: The identity of a married woman is covered or subsumed by that of her husband, and traditionally, a woman took her husband's last name as a symbol of this identity.
Q: Who is responsible for a woman's debts under coverture?
A: Under coverture, the husband is responsible for his wife's debts.
Q: When did the criticism of coverture begin?
A: In the mid-19th century, with the rise of feminism, coverture began to be criticized as being unfair to women.
Q: Did the laws related to coverture change over time?
A: Yes, various laws related to coverture began to be weakened and eventually done away with. But parts of coverture laws, mainly having to do with the husband being responsible for his wife's debts, lasted into the 1960s in some parts of the U.S.
Q: How did coverture affect female children?
A: Under coverture, a female child was covered by her father's identity. When she married, that coverage transferred to her husband.
