A Study On The Establishment And Influence Of U.S.Married Women’s Earning Acts

In the 1860 s,the American Civil War and economic development,to a certain degree,broke down the barriers between family and society,allowing women to leave their homes and involved into social production.Coupled with the promotion of feminist activists,the change of married women’s rights to earnings were imminent.In 1860,the State of New York in the United States passed the “ Earnings Act”,giving married women the right to own and independently use their income from labor,business,and asset appreciation.This legislation started the second wave of legislation for women’ s property rights in the United States.In the following half century,most states in the United States passed similar bills.However,in specific judicial practice,the “ Earnings Act” has not completely broken the family’s economic constraints on women under the common law.Despite this,the“ Earnings Act” still has a profound impact on American women,especially married women.It not only indirectly increased the education rate of women,but also affected women’ s family concepts,and provided a paradigm for the introduction of other bills to protect women’ s rights.Right to earnings is an important part of the women’ s property rights.Domestic and foreign academic research on married women’ s earnings rights focuses on the Earnings Acts of a certain state or several states,or conducts independent research from the perspective of economics or legal history,and lack of combing from a historical perspective.Therefore,this article attempts to make a more thorough combing and summary of the 19 th century Married Women’ S Earnings Acts based on the achievements of the predecessors and through further excavation of historical data.