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Wifely Duties

Marriage, Labor, and the Common Law in Nineteenth-Century America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Sara L. Zeigler
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Extract

Although many Americans casually refer to the “institution” of marriage, most rarely consider the implications of that terminology. One enters into marriage by participating in fairly well-defined rites, and couples are warned of the solemnity of the undertaking. But seldom do the parties enter into marriage with a thorough understanding of what it means to subject oneself to governance by the law of marriage.

The law is widely recognized as an institution that may profoundly affect the choices and lives of individuals. It is designed to affect individual behavior, encouraging “appropriate” actions by penalizing those that are seen as problematic for society. Its rules allow for the balancing of competing rights, and the courts provide a remedy when the rules are broken. Marriage law provides ground rules to govern the specific relationship characterized by a lifetime sexual and economic partnership between a man and a woman and endorses that relationship by giving it legal force.

Information

Type
Special Section: Institutions and Institutionalism, part 2
Information
Social Science History , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , Spring 1996, pp. 63 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1996 

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