Legislative Action and Laws: The suffrage association has been largely instrumental in securing most of the District legislation in favor of women, as the records of the past twenty years will show. What is regarded as the most important achievement of this nature since 1884 is the passage by Congress, in 1896, of the Married Woman's Property Rights Bill.
The removal of the disabilities of wives had been agitated for a number of years by the association. In 1893 a bill for this purpose, drafted by one of its members, Miss Emma M. Gillett, attorney-at-law, was passed by the Senate. When it reached the House it went through the usual stages, was tossed about from one committee to another and deferred and delayed in the most exasperating manner. It was championed by Miss Gillett, however, with an unswerving courage and fidelity which never allowed it to be forgotten or neglected, and she was treated always with the utmost courtesy when appearing before congressional committees.
In 1894 Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, always an ardent suffragist, as chairman of the committee on legislation for the District Federation of Women's Clubs, began a vigorous prosecution of this bill before Congress. Miss Gillett and Mrs. Mussey were ably assisted by Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Mrs. Lucia B. Blount, Mrs. M. E. Coues and Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood.
At this time married women had no legal right to hold property, and in most respects the District laws remained about as arbitrary as they were in the reign of King Charles II. A mother had no right by law to her own child, the father having legal sanction to dispose of the offspring even before it was born. At the time this committee was urging Congress to pass the bill, the public was horrified by a notorious case in the courts of the District in which a profligate father, who had never done anything to benefit his children, had disposed of them by will, debarring the mother from their custody and control. This cruelty and injustice was an object-lesson which especially evoked the sympathy of Congress.
The bill finally passed both Houses, was approved by President William McKinley, and became a law June 1, 1896. At a special meeting, held June 11, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood presented the association with an engrossed copy of the new law, and the women held a jubilee to celebrate their victory.
The law provides that the real, personal or mixed property which shall come to a woman by descent, purchase, gift, etc., shall be and remain her sole and separate property, notwithstanding her marriage, and shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband or be liable for his debts.
A married woman may bargain, sell and convey her real and personal property, enter into any contract, sue and be sued the same as a married man.
A married woman may carry on any business or enter any profession, by herself or with others, and the proceeds shall be her separate property and may be invested in her own name.
The law also provides that the father and mother shall be equal guardians of their children, and that the survivor may by last will and testament appoint a guardian.
The husband, if he have property, is required by a recent decision to furnish his family with reasonable support; otherwise there is no penalty for failure to do so.