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Women, consumption and coverture in England, c. 1760-1860
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Finn, Margot C. (1996) Women, consumption and coverture in England, c. 1760-1860. The Historical Journal, Vol.39 (No.3). pp. 703-722.
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Official URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2639966
Abstract
Historians concerned to demonstrate women's increasing relegation to a private, domestic sphere in the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have emphasized the extent to which married women's opportunities were restricted by the common law practice of coverture, which deprived wives of the ability to enter into economic contracts in their own right. ret social and cultural historians have argued that women played an essential role as purchasers in promoting the consumer revolution of these decades. This article explores the devices used by married women consumers to evade the strictures of coverture. Focusing on three overlapping practices - wives' willingness and ability to pledge their husbands' credit to purchase a wide range of 'necessary' goods, their use of this tactic to secure a degree of independence from unsuccessful marriages, and their active participation in the deliberations of a variety of small claims courts - it argues that the purchase of coverture in the sphere of consumption was partial and contested, rather than monolithic.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman K Law > K Law (General) |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Married women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- England -- History -- 18th century, Married women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- England -- History -- 19th century, Consumption (Economics) -- England -- History -- 18th century, Consumption (Economics) -- England -- History -- 19th century, Women consumers -- England -- Economic conditions -- 18th century, Women consumers -- England -- Economic conditions -- 19th century | ||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | The Historical Journal | ||||
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||
| ISSN: | 0018-246X | ||||
| Official Date: | 1996 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | Vol.39 | ||||
| Number: | No.3 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 703-722 | ||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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