French civil law kept married women legally subordinate well into the 1940s

Evidence

In France, where the rural population is large and where the Napoleonic Code placed the married woman under guardianship, evolution will be slow. In 1884, divorce was restored, and a wife could obtain it if the husband committed adultery; nonetheless, in the penal area, sexual difference was maintained: adultery was an offense only when perpetrated by the wife. The right of guardianship, granted with restrictions in 1907, was fully granted only in 1917. In 1912, the right to determine natural paternity was authorized. It was not until 1938 and 1942 that the married woman’s status was modified: the duty of obedience was then abrogated, although the father remains the family head; he determines the place of residence, but the wife can oppose his choice if she advances valid arguments; her powers are increasing; but the formula is still confused: “The married woman has full legal powers. These powers are only limited by the marriage contract and law”; the last part of the article contradicts the first. The equality of spouses has not yet been achieved. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 276

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: The adultery-only-when-committed-by-wife asymmetry and the ideology of feminine immanence-to-the-home connects to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ essay’s thread on how law codes encode gendered moral asymmetry.
• XREF: connects to: French women gained legal bodily autonomy only decades after 1949; French marital law required women to obtain husbands’ authorization for contracts; French law treated the married woman as a servant, not an associate (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern French law long treated wives as legal dependents #corroborates (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109
• Patriarchal marriage domesticated feminine cosmic power into lawful order #expands (0.70) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367