Married Women’s Association: The Twentieth Century Campaigns that Family Law Forgot

About the project

This project aimed to take a socio-legal and historical approach to tell the untold story of the Married Women's Association and its campaigns for economic equality in marriage. The study involved extensive archival research in the Women’s Library, LSE and The National Archives, Kew, as well as interviews with family members of the Association. The principal output from this study is the monograph Family Law Reformers: The Story of the Married Women’s Association (Hart, forthcoming 2022) which uncovers the Married Women’s Association’s involvement in reform of the law applicable to maintenance, financial remedies and housekeeping savings. It argues that the subterranean influence of the Association is overlooked yet important, providing crucial lessons for how family law is reformed (and could be reformed in future).

Research Team

Sharon Thompson  (Cardiff University)

Funder

Socio Legal Studies Association (2018-2021)