A Short History of Women's Rights Part 21

_Iowa_

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT: 15.

POPULATION: Male 1,156,849; female 1,075,004.

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Wife controls own earnings. Any a.s.signment of wages must have written consent of both husband and wife. No dower or curtesy; surviving husband or wife is ent.i.tled to one third in fee simple of both real and personal estate of other at his or her death. Wife controls own property, can sue, etc., as if single. Husband and wife are equal guardians of children. Support and education of family is chargeable equally on husband's and wife's property.

DIVORCE: Absolute for adultery, wilful desertion for two years, conviction of felony after marriage, habitual drunkenness, inhuman treatment endangering life, pregnancy of wife at time of marriage by another man, unless the husband have an illegitimate child living unknown to wife.

No limited divorce.

Annulment for prohibited degrees, impotence, bigamy, insanity or idiocy at time of marriage.

LABOUR LAWS: No female may be employed in any place where intoxicating liquors are sold; Seats must be provided for female employees. Children under 16 not to a.s.sist in operating dangerous machinery. No Sunday labour. No person under 14 may work in a factory, mine, laundry, slaughter-house, store where more than eight persons are employed; no child under 16 shall be employed in any vocation endangering life or morals, nor shall work more than ten hours a day.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS: Women have bond suffrage and can vote on increase of taxes. They may serve as school trustees and superintendents. 117 women in ministry, 52 dentists, 74 journalists, 53 lawyers, 260 doctors, 27 professors, 8 saloon keepers, 11 bankers, 34 commercial travellers, 7 carpenters, etc.

_Kansas_

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT: 18.

POPULATION: Male 768,716; female 701,779.

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Wife controls own earnings. Husband and wife are equal guardians of children. Wife controls her separate property, can sue, etc., as if unmarried. Neither husband nor wife can convey or enc.u.mber real estate without consent of other; nor dispose by will of more than one half of the separate property without other's consent. If there are no children, the surviving husband or wife takes all the property, real and personal; if there are children, one half. Husband must support family.

DIVORCE: Absolute for bigamy, desertion for one year, adultery, impotency, when wife at time of marriage was pregnant by another than her husband, extreme cruelty, fraudulent contract, habitual drunkenness, gross neglect of duty, conviction and imprisonment for felony subsequent to marriage.

No limited divorce; but wife may obtain alimony without divorce for any causes above mentioned.

LABOUR LAWS: People employing children under 14 in acrobatic or mendicant occupations are guilty of a misdemeanour. No Sunday labour.

Seats must be provided for female employees. No child under 14 may work in coal mine, nor in any factory or packing house. No child under 16 may work at any occupation endangering body or morals.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS: Women have munic.i.p.al, school, and bond suffrage. 63 women in ministry, 21 dentists, 39 journalists, 43 lawyers, 190 doctors, 21 professors, 9 saloon keepers, 7 bankers, 20 commercial travellers, 19 carpenters, etc.

_Kentucky_

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT: 12.

POPULATION: Male 1,090,227; female 1,056,947.

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Husband controls wife's earnings. Curtesy and dower are equalised. After the death of either husband or wife, the survivor is given a life interest in one third of the realty of the deceased and an absolute estate in one half of the personalty. Wife controls her personal property, but cannot dispose of real estate without husband's consent; the husband can convey real estate without his wife's signature, but it is subject to her dower. Husband is legal guardian of children. He must furnish support according to his condition, but if he has only his wages there is no law to punish him for non-support.

DIVORCE: Absolute to both husband and wife for impotence or inability to copulate and for living apart for five consecutive years without any cohabitation. Also to the party not in fault for desertion for one year, adultery, condemnation for felony, concealment of any loathsome disease at time of marriage or contracting it afterwards, force, duress, or fraud in obtaining marriage, uniting with any creed or religious society requiring a renunciation of the marriage covenant or forbidding husband and wife to cohabit. To the wife, when not in like fault, for confirmed drunkenness of husband leading to neglect to provide, habitual behaviour by husband for six months indicating aversion to wife and causing her unhappiness, physical injury or attempt at it. To the husband for wife's pregnancy at time of marriage unknown to him, adultery of wife, or such conduct as proves her to be unchaste without proof of adultery, and habitual drunkenness of wife.

Limited divorce for any of these causes or any other cause as the court may deem sufficient.

LABOUR LAWS: Forbidden to let or employ any children under 16 in any acrobatic or mendicant or immoral occupations. No Sunday labour. No child under 14 shall work in factory, mill, or mine unless said child shall have no other means of support. No child under 16 shall work more than ten hours per day. Seats and suitable dressing-rooms must be provided for female employees.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS: In the country districts any widow having a child of school age and any widow or spinster having a ward of school age may vote for school trustees and school taxes. In Louisville, five third-cla.s.s, and twenty or more fourth-cla.s.s cities no woman has any vote. Women may be notaries public. 39 women in ministry, 4 dentists, 21 journalists, 16 lawyers, 98 doctors, 5 professors, 35 saloon keepers, 3 bankers, 20 commercial travellers, 9 carpenters, etc.

_Louisiana_

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT: 16.

POPULATION: Male 694,733; female 686,892.

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Husband controls wife's earnings. Wife cannot appear in court without her husband's consent, and needs this consent in all matters connected with her separate estate. She may make her will without the authority of her husband. No woman can be a witness to a testament. No married woman can be executor without husband's consent.

The dowry is given to the husband, for him to enjoy as long as the marriage shall last. Husband is legal guardian of children.

DIVORCE: Absolute or limited for adultery, condemnation to an infamous punishment, habitual and intolerable intemperance, insupportable excess or outrages, public defamation on the part of one of the married persons toward the other, desertion, attempted murder, proof of guilt of husband or wife who has fled from justice when charged with an infamous offence.

LABOUR LAWS: No female to be employed in any place where liquor is sold.

No Sunday labour. No child under 15 to engage in any acrobatic or theatrical public exhibition. Seats must be provided for female employees, who are also to have at least thirty minutes for lunch. No girl under 14 may be employed in any mill or factory; and no woman shall be worked more than ten hours a day. Seats, suitable dressing-rooms, and stairs must be provided. An inspector, male or female, is appointed.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS: Tax-paying women can vote on all questions of taxation. 14 women in ministry, 4 dentists, 21 journalists, 8 lawyers, 25 doctors, 16 professors, 31 saloon keepers, 2 bankers, 18 commercial travellers, 9 carpenters, etc.

_Maine_

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT: 16.

POPULATION: Male 350,995; female 343,471.

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Wife controls own earnings and has full control of separate property. Wife and husband are equal guardians of children. If there is no will, the interest of the husband or wife in the real estate of the other is the same--one third absolutely, if there is issue living, one half if there is no issue, the whole if there is neither issue nor kindred.

DIVORCE: Absolute for adultery, impotence, extreme cruelty, desertion for three years, gross and confirmed habits of Intoxication whether from liquors or drugs, cruel and abusive treatment, wilful neglect to provide.

No limited divorce.

LABOUR LAWS: Ten hours a day the legal limit for female employees. No child under 14 may work in a factory. No Sunday labour. No child under 16 may be employed in any acrobatic, mendicant, immoral, or dangerous occupation.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS: No suffrage. Women can be justices of the peace, town clerks, and registers of probate. They cannot be notaries public. 39 women in ministry, 4 dentists, 33 journalists, 4 lawyers, 67 doctors, 1 professor, 3 bankers, 5 carpenters, etc.

_Maryland_

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT: 16.

POPULATION: Male 589,275; female 598,769.

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Wife controls own earnings. No a.s.signment of wages to be made without consent of both husband and wife. Wife controls separate property absolutely. Inheritance of property is the same for widow and widower. Husband is legal guardian of children and must support family.

DIVORCE: Absolute for impotence, any cause which by the laws of the State renders a marriage null and void _ab initio_, adultery, desertion for three years, illicit s.e.xual intercourse _of the woman before_ marriage unknown to husband (_but the wife cannot obtain a divorce from her husband if he has been guilty of such an offence_). Limited divorce for cruelty, excessively vicious conduct, or desertion. In all cases where an absolute divorce is granted for adultery or abandonment, the court may decree that the guilty party shall not contract marriage with any other person during the lifetime of the other party. Annulment is given for bigamy or marriage within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity and affinity.

LABOUR LAWS: Seats must be provided for female employees. No Sunday labour. No child under 14 may be employed in any mendicant or acrobatic occupation. No child under 8 may be employed in peddling. Women may not be waitresses in any place where liquor is sold. Children under 12 may not be employed in any business except in the counties, from June 1 to Oct. 15, Ten hours a legal day's work.