Shall
Tennessee Women
Be Bond or Free?
By Mrs. L. Crozier French
The position of the married women, according to the laws of
Tennessee, is nothing more or less
than that of a slave. It may be
very provoking to many of the
residents of the state to have
such a statement made, but the
reiteration of disagreeable truths
is a necessity if reforms are to be
carried forward.
In 1909 being chairman of one
of the study sections of Ossoli, I
brought to the notice of the members, the legal status of the women of Tennessee. The women
were amazed to find that a married woman in this commonwealth
loses control of all her property,
real and personal and cannot make
a will except under great restrictions. That she has no legal
right to the control of her children, and that though the law
gives her husband control of all
she possesses, there is no adequate punishment for him if he
fails to use this property for the
support of wife and family. If
this is not the condition of a
slave then I do not know what a
slave's condition is.
Women hawing been kept in ig-
norance of their true position here the law, this condition of
things was a surprise to most of
the members of Ossoli. A motion
was passed unanimously that the
chairman of law and constitution
of the State Federation should
bring the legal status of the women of Tennessee to the notice of
the Federation of clubs, with a
view of seeing if something could
ot be done to improve the mar-
ried woman's position before the
law.
This was done at the convention
which met in Nashville in May,
1909. A resolution was passed that
the president appoint a committee to compile the laws concerning
the women of Tennessee and that
a report be made to the next convention. The president, Mrs. Mc-
Cormick, appointed Mrs. French,
chairman, and left to her the selection of the other members of
the committee. She wrote to each
president of the federated clubs of
the state, asking that she appoint
a member of this committee from
her club. In this way interest
was aroused in the clubs all over
the state and the women began
to study diligently their position
before the law. Many of them
were told by the men of their
family and even by lawyers, of
some reputation in the state, that
it was all a mistake about the
laws of Tennessee not being advantageous to women, and one of
the examples they gave in evidence, was that a married woman
did not have to keep a contract.
These representatives of women
have not the moral sense sufficiently cultivated to recognize the fact
that such a law is a degradation ...
to the women instead of a protection. Such a law can be nothing
but degrade as it reflects not only
upon the intelligence of women,
but upon her moral sense as well.
We are told that the early fathers of the church at a council
once debated the Question as to
whether a woman had a soul. It
seems the lawmakers of Tennessee decided this point in the negative. This matter of the legal
status of the women of Tennessee
was reported upon by Mrs. French
at the convention in Chattanooga
in 1910, and at the convention at
Memphis by Mrs. Turney, of Nashville, in 1911, and by the president
of the Federation in Sewanee in
1912 when she made it the subject of her annual address. No
one subject has received more
attention from the State Federation than this. The matter has
been brought twice to the attention of the Tennessee Bar association, and both times a motion was
passed that changes should be
made in our laws removing the
disabilities of married women. One
or more bills have been introduced into the present legislature in
compliance with this sentiment
and it is hoped there will be
enough statesmenship in that body
to perceive the right thing and
to do it.
Reports from the capital say
that the judiciary committee after
a heated discussion, have decided
to report favorably on the removal
of married women's disabilities.
Some of the friends of equal
suffrage say it is not good policy
to work for a change in our antiquated laws, as they are such
good evidence of the futility of
having women represented by men,
with the hope of getting full justice for the women. Bad men do
not care for justice and good ones
are too much engaged with trying
to get justice for themselves and
families to spend time looking after the rights of women in general.
Good men take care of their
own families and naturally find
this occupies most of their time
and intelligence. Who can blame
them, if they forget the fact that
they are the political representatives of all women who are disfranchised?
Republican governments were
established because wise men
found out all classes must be put
in a position to defend their own
rights otherwise gross injustice
would be done to many. Women
have been so long considered only as appendages to men, that
many, not very intelligent people,
find it difficult to readjust their
thought and give women place as
individual units.
The question we now await with
interest is, will our Tennessee
representatives now in session, be
equal to the occasion?
