ABSTRACT
This collection of original essays looks at a topic of growing interest and debate in feminist and historical circles: the social regulation of women through law during the 19th and 20th centuries, and the resistance which emerged in response. The collection refutes the notion of women oppressed during the 19th century, unable to act in opposition to the law. When issues of motherhood and women's sexuality became areas of public policy, women began to negotiate the law, as case studies from Europe and the USA show. This book should be of interest to students of women's studies, sociology of law, and social policy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |26 pages
Disruptive bodies and unruly sex
The regulation of reproduction and sexuality in the nineteenth century
chapter |21 pages
Mothers as citizens
Feminism, evolutionary theory and the reform of Dutch family law 1870–1910
chapter |20 pages
Humanity or justice?
Wifebeating and the law in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries