Description
Book SynopsisIn Her Own Name explores the origins and consequences of laws expanding married women’s property rights, focusing on the people and institutions that shaped them.
Trade ReviewSara Chatfield has brought to American women’s history a unique theoretical and empirical vantage point. Her innovative analysis of emulation and diffusion in constitutional reform sets a new standard in American political development and the politics of gender. -- Daniel Carpenter, author of
Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870Chatfield’s
In Her Own Name insightfully explains the process by which rights law can expand and contract based on state interests and illuminates and deepens our understanding of the development of women’s rights.
In Her Own Name is important and welcome work. -- Priscilla Yamin, author of
American Marriage: A Political InstitutionChatfield tells a fascinating story about the trajectory of married women’s property reform. In doing so, she also contributes to a growing body of political science literature about the importance of understanding state-level political development. -- Julie Novkov, author of
American by Birth: Wong Kim Ark and the Battle for CitizenshipIn Her Own Name is a compelling investigation of the development of married women's economic citizenship. Chatfield shows how male policy makers used property reform for married women to pursue an array of goals, including land conquest, slavery, temperance, and family needs—and how state-level institutions structured these pursuits. -- Jake Grumbach, author of
Laboratories against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State PoliticsTable of ContentsIntroduction
1. Life Under Coverture and How It Changed
2. Married Women’s Rights Reforms in American Political Development
3. Social Movements and State Power: Reform in State Legislatures
4. Constitutional Conventions as Key Reform Moments
5. Decentralized Reform and Policy Diffusion
6. Courts as Collaborators and Catalysts
Conclusion
Methods Appendix
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
