Winter is always a good time to settle in with some heavy-duty reading. I just finished Legal and Political Status of Women in Iowa: An Historical Account of the Rights of Women in Iowa from 1838 to 1918, by Ruth A. Gallaher. Even the title is heavy-duty!

Originally published in 1918 by the State Historical Society of Iowa, this historical study of women in Iowa is available as a reprint or as a free Google ebook. Since I like to highlight and annotate books that interest me, I purchased a copy from Amazon for $22.61.

My initial goal was to learn about 19th century property rights. Territorial Iowa relied on old English Common Law to define the rights of women; after statehood they gradually gained ground legally. Single women always had much the same legal rights as men, although they may not have exercised those rights fully due to the  pressures of society. Married women under common law surrendered all their basic legal rights and property to their husbands.

The changes in Iowa law to this system of “femme coveture” were slow and somewhat confusing, at least to me. I’ll need to study further to truly understand the various Iowa Codes and their impact on women’s rights.

The second half of the book is devoted to the political progress of women up to 1918, and even though this was not my original interest, I found it to be a fascinating picture of 19th century attitudes and mores. Since the book ends before women gained full suffrage, the perspective really gives you a feel for what was an ongoing battle. It’s difficult today to understand the challenges women faced as they struggled for an equal voice in government. This book provides some very useful insights.