Quiet revolutionaries : the Married Women's Association and family law /
Sharon Thompson.
- First edition.
- 1 online resource (160 pages).
Abstract freely available; full-text restricted to individual document purchasers.
"This book provides a unique analysis of how our current law has been shaped by feminist activism, exploring the attempts of the Married Women's Association (MWA) to reform family property law over the 50-year period between 1938-1988. Initiated by former suffragettes, the Married Women's Association formed in 1938 with one ambition: equal partnership in marriage. Their campaigns represent a turning point in the history of marital property and helped to form the legal landscape of family law today, yet their story has never been told. The book employs an innovative blend of feminist legal history and biography to produce the first account of the MWA's work towards economic and legal equality between spouses. It focuses on the MWA's defeats as well as its successes, placing particular emphasis on the Association's failed Bills. This focus on failure is a subversive act; it is a commentary on how and why law is reformed, and on the limitations of law in achieving gender equality. This in turn provides vital insight into processes of family law reform and into questions about marriage and divorce that are proving newsworthy and provocative today. The book will ensure that, once illuminated, the missing stories of feminist strategies to reform law - both successful and unsuccessful - will not be forgotten."--