er real estate till she died, and if
they ever had a living child his ownership of the real estate
continued to his death. He could forbid her to buy a loaf of bread
or a pound of sugar, or contract for a load of wood to keep the
family warm. She did not own a rag of her own clothing. She had no
personal rights, and could hardly call her soul her own.

Her husband could steal her children, rob her of her clothing, and
her earnings, neglect to support the family; and she had no legal
redress. If a wife earned money by her labor, the husband could
claim the pay as his share of the proceeds. There is a clause
sometimes found in old wills, to the effect that if a widow marry
again, she shall forfeit all right to her husband's property. The
most conservative judge in the commonwealth would now rule that a
widow cannot be kept from her fair share of the property, by any
such unjust restriction. In a husband's eyes of a hundred and fifty
years ago, a woman's mission was accomplished after she had been
_his_ wife and borne _his_ children. What more could be desired of
her, he argued, but a corner somewhere in which, respectably
dressed as his _relict_, she could sit down and mourn for him, for
the rest of her life.[142]

The law no longer sanctions such a will, but provides that the
widow shall have a fair share of all personal property. If a widow
permits herself to-day to be defrauded of her legal rights in the
division of property, it is her own fault, and because she does not
study and understand for herself the general statutes of
Massachusetts, and the laws concerning the rights of married women.
The result of thirty years of property legislation for women is
well stated by Mr. Sewall in his admirable pamphlet, in which he
says, "the last thirty years have done more to improve the law for
married women than the four hundred preceding." The legislature
has, during this time, enacted laws allowing women to vote in
parishes and religious societies, declaring that women _must_
become members of the board of trustees of the three State primary
and reform schools, of the State workhouse, of the State almshouse
at Tewksbury, and of the board of prison commissioners; also, that
certain officers and managers of the reformatory prison for women
at Sherborn "shall be women." Without legislation, women now are
school supervisors, overseers of the poor, trustees of public
libraries and members of the State Board of Education and of