Women Gained the Right to own property in 1981!

[jonette]

U.S Supreme Court
KIRCHBERG V. FEENSTRA, 450 US 455
(450 U.S. 455
(1981)

KIRCHBERG V. FEENSTRA ET AL.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES COURT
OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

NO.79-1388

A woman's right to own property was not declared by the Constitution until this case was argured and won!

Mrs Feenstra, became a widow. Her first husband had left her a house, which she and her daughter shared.

She remarried. The man made sexual advances to her young daughter.
She had him charged and thrown in jail. To get out of jail he used the house her first husband bought, as security for his bond.
Of course he never paid the lawyer who stood his bond.

The lawyer told Mrs. Feenstra if she didn't pay him $3000.00 he was taking her house.

Mrs Feenstra went all the way to the Supreme Court.

For over three hundred years women had tried to get this right protected to them, by the U.S Constition.

Thanks to Sandra Dae O'connor and Rhenquist we now have this right.
It was so long in comming. Keep your eyes open; Don't lose this right!

[poohbear]

WOW!

I believe I've heard this before, but hadn't read the details.

It is hard to believe. Prior to this important change, things must have been even harder than they already are, for women in abusive marriages.

[jonette]

When I was separated from my X.husband before my divorce, my lawyer warned me not to buy a car until the divorce was final, because my X-husband could take it as his own, and I would still have to pay for it!

I had a classmate in colledge, she had been married for years. She looked to be in her 50's. Her husband dumped her for a younger woman. He was an officer in the military. She lost her medical, and had no retirement benefits. She had been his wife, when he started out as a private.

I think half of the Supreme Court Justices, should be women. I don't want us to lose our rights again.

[poohbear]

A dumb question, Jonette (I am confused.)

If a woman's right to own property was unrecognized by the Constitution, how did unmarried women wind up buying their own houses? My oldest sister never married, but has owned her house since the late 70's.

Prior to 1981, if a married couple purchased a house together, was it automatically put in the man's name, only?

(I did not buy mine till the 90's.)

[jonette]

Some States gave women the right to own property, some didn't. If you lived in a state which acknowledged the man as "Lord and Master' and some states, ex. Louisinna and N.C. did; you weren't protected by the constitution. Women couldn't own property if they lived in those states. After marriage the property became their husbands.

[Guest]

A dumb question, Jonette (I am confused.)

No you aren't. I am!