Head And Master Laws
"Head and Master" laws were a set of American property laws that permitted a husband to have final say regarding all household decisions and jointly owned property without his wife's knowledge or consent, until 1979 when Louisiana became the final state to repeal them. Until then, the matter of who paid for property or whose name was on the deed had been irrelevant.
The law existed on the basis that the legal definition of marriage, during the period the laws were in effect, delegated the husband's role as supporting the family and the wife's as housekeeping, childrearing, and providing sex.
Read more about Head And Master Laws: Historical Example
Famous quotes containing the words head, master and/or laws:
“He sits at the table, head down, the young clear neck exposed,
watching the drugstore sign from the tail of his eye;”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“Be real and admirable, not as we know, but as you know. Able men do not care in what kind a man is able, so only that he is able. A master likes a master, and does not stipulate whether it be orator, artist, craftsman, or king.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I flatter myself [we] have in this country extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)