Calendar of Milestones

1832
First Reform Bill extended the vote to men who owned or rented property worth an annual rate of 10 pounds or more (about 18% of the adult male population). It included half of the middle class but excluded agricultural labourers and most industrial workers, and introduced the word 'male' into suffrage legislation for the first time.

1839
Custody of Infants Act inspired by the writings of Caroline Norton, this act allowed women who were divorced or separated but had not been proved adulterous - in short to be of 'unblemished character' - to ask for custody of children under seven. Previously, the father was immediately awarded custody of all children, regardless of the reasons for divorce.

1857
Matrimonial Causes Act - this established secular divorce in England. Prior to this secular divorce required an act of Parliament and cost hundreds of pounds, and only four women had ever achieved a divorce this way. The 1857 law provided that;
(1) a court could order maintenance payment to a divorced or estranged wife;
(2) a divorced wife could inherit or bequeath property, enter contracts, sue or be sued, and protect her earnings from a deserter;
(3) a man could secure a divorce on the grounds of his wife's adultery. For women, a husband's adultery alone was insufficient grounds--she had to prove another charge such as desertion, extreme cruelty, or incest to secure a divorce.

1867
Second Reform Bill doubled the electorate by extending the vote to almost all working men except agricultural day-labourers. The feminists' amendment, for which they had presented the petition to John Stuart Mill, which would have substituted the word 'person' for 'man' in the description of eligible voters, was overwhelmingly defeated.

1870
Married Women's Property Act allowed women to keep up to 200 pounds of their earnings and to inherit personal property and small amounts of money; everything else (whether acquired before or after marriage) belonged to their husbands.

1873
Custody of Infant's Acts: Women could be awarded custody of children up to age 16, and adulteresses could petition for custody.

1878
Matrimonial Causes Act: Women could be secure a separation on the grounds of cruelty and to claim maintenance and custody of children. Magistrates were authorised to provide protection orders to wives whose husbands had been convicted of aggravated assault.

After the 1880 General Election William Gladstone became Prime Minister of a government that promised legislation that would reduce the legal inequalities between men and women. One example of this was the passing of the 1884 Married Women's Property Act.

1882
Married Women's Act. allowed wives to claim maintenance on the grounds of desertion.

1884
Married Women's Property Act. Married women could keep all personal and real property acquired before and during marriage. Under the terms of the act married women had the same rights over their property as unmarried women. This act therefore allowed a married woman to retain ownership of property which she might have received as a gift from a parent. Before the 1884 Married Women's Property Act was passed this property would have automatically have become the property of the husband.