"To Have and to Hold: The Marital Rape Exemption and the Fourteenth Amendment."
Harvard Law Review 99.6 (1986): 1255. Web.
The Author of, To Have and To Hold: Marital Rape Exemption and the Fourteenth Amendment, first explains the history of why in the earlier days marital rape was not considered rape. There were certain traditions that are concluded in the article, where women, traditionally gave up their “identity” and replaced it with their husbands. Having taken their husbands identity, they became property of their husbands. I understand the reasons why women had no voice in society many years ago because society was not developed to have women part of it, but for my inquiry paper I can use this information as an advantage. I will
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The laws included have been specifically listed to support the author’s point of view toward women’s rights. The article lists and argues the effects of the experiences of the victims, which is a plus because I will build up these experiences to argue in my inquiry paper that marital rape exists and brings only negative experiences. Furthermore, in a marriage both parties have to consent in having sexual intercourse not just one is allowed to decide for the other. With that said the author then includes equality between men and women. It talks about women’s right not being so equally balanced to men 's rights, which is why men are exempt to be prosecuted for raping their wives. The author brought out a big point on equality, men and women do indeed have different levels of equality. Men usually have a bigger range of power over women and the whole topic of marital rape is wrapped around equality. With that said without unbalanced equality between men and women marital rape would not be an issue. At the end of the article the author finally states its position clearly over marital rape and women. The author argues that marital rape …show more content…
She talks about court cases, in the R. v. Clarke, the wife ordered a divorce from her husband, two weeks later she is raped by her husband. The rule was that it was considered rape because the wife ordered a divorce which meant the couple were not one any more but two individuals. There are a few more case rulings that later lead to the elimination of the Marital Rape Exemption law in the R. v. R case. The case is about when the wife leaves with her child to her parent’s home, two days later the husband calls to say he is going to divorce her. A few weeks later he, the husband, breaks in his wife’s parents house and forced/attempts to force his wife to have sex. The Judge, Judge Owens, states he does not make laws but he does rule what he believes the laws mean. This I believe is important because later in the passage the author points out that Judge Owens believed that in this case the wife did consent of having sexual intercourse with her husband but he did believe the husband could be charged of rape because there was violence involved. Judge Owens concluded that the numerous amount violence involved states the husband was found guilty but he did not talk about marital rape but mostly of the violence involved. Later the case was appealed and it ruled “unlawful”,
The Feminist Legal Theory closely looks at women and their position as legal subjects throughout history, and how these aspects have changed in regards to women as legal persons and the coorelating laws on gender themselves. The p...
...o American colonies. Some colonies or loyalists remained faithful and became dependent on the British government. In the same way through the status of feme-covert, husbands had absorbed their wives’ legal identity. “She could exercise no choice in her political allegiance independently of her husband” (p.154). But few decades after the American Independence, “many states liberalized their divorce laws, making it easier for women to divorce husbands who abused or deserted them” (p.154). Married women were allowed to own and sell their properties independently. Due to economic crisis, husbands transferred their estate to their wives to shield them from creditors. Women had control over a family’s estate. “Despite the “new code of laws” drafted by her husband and peers, the principles and practices behind the feme-covert remained embedded in the legal system” (p.154).
For a very long time, men always had a higher status than women. In marriages during the beginning of the 1900s, men were dominant over their wives. They were the providers and the leaders of their families.(Bernstein, 2011) For women, their main goal in life was to get married to a man that could provide for them financially. Women did not attend college or have careers, so having a man asking for their hand in marriage was a need and a privilege. Originally, marriage contracts stated that any property that the woman owned automatically became his once they were married. (Bernstein, 2011) Even though marriage contracts were changed so that women could own their own property and they gained the right to vote in 1920, women were still looked down upon. (Bernstein, 2011) Until the 1980s, rape within marriages was legal because technically it was the wife’s job to have sex with her husband. (Bernstein, 2011) Women literally only seen as something for men to marry so they had someone provide them with children and to take care of them
Eileraas, Karina. "Rape, Legal Definitions of." Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World. Ed. Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster, and Jane E. Sloan. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2011. 1205-09. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 4 Apr. 2012.
“What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine” (Women’s Rights). This quote may sound ridiculous. However, this quote gave a clear reflection of women’s lives before the 1900’s; women were not considered “people”. Once a woman got married, she lost all their rights! This continued until Ontario passed The Married Women’s Property Act in 1884. The movements for the right of married women grew in momentum as other provinces began passing the Act too. Before the Act was passed when women married, all of her possessions turned over to the husband. The husband could spend all of his wife’s money and leave her, although immoral, he would not be found guilty. Wealthy families tried to put a stop to the chance of their daughter’s wealth being taken advantage of by creating prenuptial contracts. These contracts were signed before the couple got married; it outlined...
The meaning and penalties of rape have progressed throughout the history of America to ensemble the mindset of the time. Records show that a man in the seventeenth century was convicted of attempted rape if "he used enticement and then force toward a woman, driven by the sinful lusts that raged within him...and he allowed her...to scare or fight him off" (Dayton 238). Unfortunately, this definition was not always taken at face value. The leading men of the seventeenth century, likely white men, reformed this definition in a variation of ways to work in their favor when suspected of rape. It can be determined from study of historical information that the reason there are fewer reported rapes against white males in the seventeenth century and more against non-white males was because women gave in to a society driven by the influence and governance of white males in the legal system. This concept is demonstrated through a look into the outcome of a number of rape cases against both white men and non-white men, through an understanding of the helpless station of women, and through a view at the basis of the white man's resentment toward the non-white male: their view of the non-white male as the "other."
Karen Horney was born September 16, 1885, to Clotilde and Berndt Wackels Danielson. Her father was a ship's captain, a religious man, and an authoritarian. Her mother, who was known as Sonni, was a very different person -- Berndt's second wife, 19 years his junior, and considerably more urbane. Horney's childhood was one of some distress. She felt like her father loved and respected her brother much more than he did of her. Yet he would take her on sea trips with him, and would buy gifts for her. She distanced her self from her father, and grew to recent him. She turned to her mother who gave her the love and respect that she desired.
Women were confronted by many social obligation in the late nineteenth century. Women were living lives that reflected their social rank. They were expected to be economically dependent and legally inferior. No matter what class women were in, men were seen as the ones who go to work and make the money. That way, the women would have to be dependent since they were not able to go to work and make a good salary. No matter what class a woman was in, she could own property in her own name. When a woman became married she " lost control of any property she owned, inherited, or earned" ( Kagan et al. 569). A woman's legal identity was given to her husband.
Morgan has always been heavily criticised by scholars and feminist activists, the mere fact that those accused of rape could gain an acquittal merely by stating their ‘mistaken’ but ‘honest’ belief in consent. The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) plays an i...
For instance, women were not afforded the right to vote until 1920 with the 19th Amendment – over 150 years since the creation of the United States ("19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution"). The women’s rights movement began with the country’s inception, but suppressive gender roles confined women in the home as wives and mothers. In spite of numerous developments over time, as a woman today, I have a fear of rape that hangs over me as I anticipate entering college. I am not alone in this fear, knowing that one in five women will be sexually assaulted while in college (The Hunting Ground). The problems caused by sexual assault are violations of Title IX, as the lack of safety inhibits a woman’s participation in her education (“Title IX and Sex Discrimination”). When over half of America feels – and has always felt – that they have less freedom due to their gender, there cannot be
As Estrich demonstrates, the law on rape has major flaws. The law exposes traditions and attitudes that surround women and sex. It condones the idea that sex contains male aggression and female passivity. The law uses three different criteria to label an act of sex as rape: mens rea, force, and consent. Estrich feels that these features demonstrate sexist attitudes within the law. Our legal system abandon’s mens rea which is Latin for “guilty state of the mind.” It is the perpetrator’s ability to understand force and non-consent. A woman must demonstrate resistance. The man can escape by stating he did not realize the woman was not consenting. So, the court turns to the woman to see if she provided proper evidence that she did not consent to the sex.
Historically, legal and social traditions in the United States have permitted and supported the abuse of women and children by the male head of household. This historical phenomenon helps explain why women are the primary victims of domestic violence. In this country, civil rights and legal responsibilities were first granted to free, property-owning men. Wives, children, and slaves were considered "chattel" or personal property of male citizens who were held responsible for their public behavior.
"The Constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in the Wake of Romer v. Evans ." New
In the 1800s divorces were frowned upon and everything was given to the males. In the Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton enumerated specific complaints concerning the oppressed status of women in American society: their inability to vote; exclusion from higher education and professional careers; subordination to male authority in both church and state; and legal victimization in terms of wages, property rights, and divorce (Driscoll 1).... ... middle of paper ... ...
DISCUSS THE EXTENT OF PROTECTION FOR WOMEN AGAINST MALE VIOLENCE BY THE STATE. For this essay I am going to look at Domestic Violence against women and what the State is doing to protect them. Domestic Violence is now a well-known global occurrence affecting not only women but also their children too. Violence against woman has been around since the dawn of time. We have all seen cartoon pictures of the caveman dragging his mate behind him by her hair. It was just something that men did. Woman had no protection against men especially if they were married to their attacker. For the first 75 years of the 20th century women were seen as meek and subservient to their men and were also owned by those men. Men had a social right to keep their women under control. Things began to change from the late 1960’s early 1970’s. As feminism became more popular the feelings that men owned their women began to subside. But this change in society did not so much to change the occurrence and violence of violence in the home. So what exactly is domestic violence? “ Domestic Violence is usually defined as physical, emotional, sexual and other abuse by someone (usually but not always a man) of a person (usually not always a woman) with whom they have or have had some form of intimate relationship such as marriage, in order to maintain power and control over that person. It may include threats to kill or harm the woman and/or her children or other family members” (Barron 1992) Lists of typical injuries sustained by victims include: § Bruising § Bleeding § Hair loss § Knife wounds § Scratches to body and face § Concussion § Broken/loss of teeth This list could go and on. Injuries do not have to include physical but also mental. The cause of domestic violence against women can never fully be documented. There is the Liberal approach that violence against women is a rare occurrence and that it is only a small number of men who will abuse. They blame social backgrounds that form a cycle of abuse. If the father used violence against the mother then the child will see it as normal. They also feel that to push a man as far as to commit an assault sexual frustration should also be taken into consideration. But the criticisms against this approach include the notion that not all men who come from a broken home go out and commit rape and systematic abuse. They see that the women have to...