Finn, Margot C.. (1996) Women, consumption and coverture in England, c. 1760-1860. The Historical Journal, Vol.39 (No.3). pp. 703-722. ISSN 0018-246X

Full text not available from this repository.

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)
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
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
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/37732

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item