Word of the Day: Coverture
When a woman's rights were subsumed by those of her husband.
Coverture was a legal doctrine in English common law under which a married woman’s legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband. Upon marriage, she had no independent legal existence of her own, in keeping with society’s expectation that her husband was to provide for and protect her. Under coverture a woman became a feme covert, whose legal rights and obligations were mostly subsumed by those of her husband. An unmarried woman, or feme sole, retained the right to own property and make contracts in her own name.
From today’s news hole:
Some of the most visible Trump groupies are members of government: Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, Elise Stefanik, Kristi Noem and, of course, Marjorie Taylor Greene. These women brought a certain amount of chutzpah to Trump’s brand, adding their feminine touch to his masculine politics of disruption, grift and sexism so that it looked less like scamminess and more like populism. In exchange, they rode Trump’s ideological coattails to power.
This kind of professional coverture — where women rely on powerful men for their own professional status — can be heady. It’s not hard to imagine the onetime “South Dakota Snow Queen” Noem struggling with professional respect or the G.E.D. holder Boebert having few career options. And for many of them, betting on Trump did pay off. They did not just win elections and gain political appointments. They also became stars.
But history can tell you what happens when a king graces a woman with new powers: When the king tires of her, her reign is over.
| Tressie McMillan Cottom, Has Marjorie Taylor Greene Really Seen the Light?