A married woman must secure the privilege from the court of carrying on business in her own name.
The law provides that the party found guilty of adultery can not marry the co-respondent during the lifetime of the other party. If any divorced woman, who shall have been found guilty of adultery, shall afterward openly cohabit with the person proved to have been the partaker of her crime, she is rendered incapable of alienating either directly or indirectly any of her lands, tenements or hereditaments, and all wills, deeds, and other instruments of conveyance therefor are absolutely void, and after her death her property descends and is subject to distribution according to law in like manner as if she had died intestate. This latter clause does not apply to a divorced man.
In June, 1895, through the legislative committee of the State W. S. A., Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, chairman, and with the co-operation of other women's organizations, the following law, championed by Representative Frank Riter, was secured:
A married woman who contributes by the efforts of her own labor or otherwise toward the support, maintenance and education of her minor child, shall have the same and equal power, control and authority over her said child, and the same and equal right to the custody and services, as are now possessed by her husband who is the father of such minor child.
The best legal authorities are undecided as to whether labor within the household entitles the mother to this equal guardianship or whether it must be performed outside the home. The father is held to be the only person entitled to sue for the earnings of a minor child, and as no legal means are provided for enforcing the above law it is practically of no effect.
The law says, "As her baron or lord, the husband is bound to provide his wife with shelter, food, clothing and medicine;" also:
If any husband or father neglect to maintain his wife or children, it is lawful for any alderman, justice of the peace or magistrate, upon information made before him, under oath or affirmation, by the wife or children, or by any other person, to issue his warrant for the arrest of the man, and bind him over with one sufficient surety to appear at the next Court of Quarter Sessions, there to answer the said charge.
If he is found to be of sufficient ability to pay such sum as the court thinks reasonable and proper, it makes an order for the comfortable support of wife or children, or both, the sum not to exceed the amount of $100 per month. The man is to be committed to jail until he complies with the order of the court, or gives security for the payment of the sum. After three months' imprisonment, if the court find him unable to pay or give security, it may discharge him.
In 1887 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years. The penalty is a fine not exceeding $1,000, and imprisonment by separate and solitary confinement at labor, or simple imprisonment, not exceeding fifteen years. No minimum penalty is named.
Suffrage: Women possess no form of suffrage.
Office Holding:[419] The State constitution of 1873 made women eligible for all school offices, but they have had great difficulty in securing any of these. Out of 16,094 school directors in the State only thirty-two are women. In Philadelphia a Board of Public Education, appointed by the courts, co-operates with the school directors. This board consists of forty-one members, only three being women. In the entire State, six women are reported to be now filling the offices of county and city school superintendent and assistant superintendent.