Under the common law of England and in the
states following the common law in the United
States, a single woman, or feme sole, became
known upon her marriage as a feme covert. During
the period of her marriage (or coverture), she
lost many of her rights to ownership and control
of property. The husband became the owner of all
personal property owned by the wife before
marriage or acquired by her thereafter; he also
had the right to control her real property and
all of her earnings. The wife had no power to
contract, to sue, or even to be sued in her own
name. Coverture was based on the patronizing and
discriminatory notion that, because of their
"natural" and "proper" timidity and delicacy,
married women needed to be protected.
Beginning in Mississippi in 1839, some states
began to make statutory changes in the common
law of coverture by granting married women
increased legal rights. New York's 1848 married
women's statute, which limited the scope of
coverture, was the first law to gain widespread
attention. Eventually coverture was abolished in
all states. However, the reforms were not part
of a coherent program to grant equal rights to
married women. As recently as 1975 one of the
remaining vestiges of coverture was eliminated
when several state and federal laws were enacted
to ensure equal credit opportunity. The
abolition of coverture helped achieve formal but
not substantive equality for married women.
Married women had a formal legal identity. It
paved the way for their suffrage, but did not
give women equal opportunity in employment or
admission to professions.
Isabel Marcus, from:
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/women/html/wh_008900_coverture.htm