9781422274064

GENDER EQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES

During the British colonial period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the colonial governments in North America based their laws on the English common law. This was summarized in Blackstone’s Commentaries, which said, “By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in the law. The very being and legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated into that of her husband, under whose wing and protection she performs everything.” 1 The concept that women had no separate identity under the law was carried over after the American Revolution. It was assumed that in a family unit, the husband knew what would be best for his family in legal and political matters, which included wives as well as children. The ascent upwards from this state of affairs has been a long and arduous one. Understandably, many women chafed at this position from the very beginning. Abigail Adams expressed these

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