French marital law required women to obtain husbands’ authorization for contracts

Evidence

Roman law placed the woman in the hands of her husband loco filiae; at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Bonald declared that the woman is to her husband what the child is to the mother; until the 1942 law, French law demanded a wife’s obedience to her husband; law and customs still confer great authority on him: it is suggested by her very situation within the conjugal society. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

During the liquidation of the Revolution woman enjoys an anarchic freedom. But when society is reorganized, she is rigidly enslaved again. From the feminist point of view, France was ahead of other countries; but for the unfortunate modern French woman, her status was determined during a military dictatorship; the Napoleonic Code, which sealed her fate for a century, greatly held back her emancipation. Like all military leaders, Napoleon wants to see woman solely as a mother; but, heir to a bourgeois revolution, he does not intend to demolish the social structure by giving the mother priority over the wife: he prohibits the querying of paternity; he sets down harsh conditions for the unwed mother and the illegitimate child. Yet the married woman herself does not find recourse in her dignity as mother; the feudal paradox is perpetuated. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 252 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: French women gained legal bodily autonomy only decades after 1949; Modern French law long treated wives as legal dependents — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109; French civil law kept married women legally subordinate well into the 1940s — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 276 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern French law long treated wives as legal dependents #corroborates (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109
• French civil law kept married women legally subordinate well into the 1940s #corroborates (0.88) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 276
• The Napoleonic Code institutionalized women’s legal subordination for a century #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 252
• French law treated the married woman as a servant, not an associate #expands (0.80)