Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Women, consumption and coverture in England, c. 1760-1860

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

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

Research output not available from this repository, contact author.
Official URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2639966

Request Changes to record.

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: K Law [Moys] > KF Common Law, British Isles > KF England and Wales
H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
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:
DateEvent
1996Published
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

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item
twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us