Traditional roles and attitudes: The role an status of women in our society has changed markedly over the last 150 years. Previously, women had very few legal rights an most societies placed women in an inferior position compared to that of men. This was often justified as being the result of biological differences between the sexes. Women were thought to be more emotional and less decisive than men. Women were also held to be less intelligent and less creative by nature. This idea, that women are naturally inferior, was maintained by various cultures which taught girls to behave according to negative stereotypes of femininity.
Economic rights: Women?s economic rights depended greatly on whether they were married or unmarried, and their social status. If a woman was married, her position was subservient to that of her husband. The husband provided the income and shelter for his wife and family. Upon marriage a woman could not retain control over any property she had prior to the marriage. Indeed the common law saw man and his wife as one entity, unito caro. The wife?s livelihood, property and indeed legal existence merged into that of her husbands. A women could not enter into a contract without her
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