Chapter 101 Extra Chapter 2: Mary and her husband return to England...

Mary and her husband returned to England at the end of the year, where they held a ball on Piccadilly, where Mary's beauty won unanimous praise.

“I must admit, she is indeed extraordinary.” Countess Carlisle, watching her sister-in-law interact with other noble ladies, walked over to her brother William and said, “I originally thought she would not be able to handle the appropriate manners when interacting with these people, like many girls who have risen through the social ladder.”

“If Mary wanted to, she could make everyone like her, but she didn’t think that liking was meaningful.”

William believed that his wife must have had ulterior motives for getting acquainted with these aristocratic women, and that it was not simply for social purposes.

He was right. Mary made these new friends mainly to become a fashion leader in high society, thereby better promoting simple and convenient women's clothing.

Fashion can be led, and even if the crinoline skirt was destined to become a fashion symbol for upper-class women in the future, Mary hoped to get rid of the overly tight corset and the cumbersome and dangerous crinoline through her own efforts.

During this process, the former Viscountess of Cork was of great help to Mary. Richard married this lady during Mary's absence from England.

After the marriage, Mrs. Elizabeth Price lost her former aristocratic status and automatically forfeited most of the rights to the property left to her by her previous husband. However, she retained a portion of the property, along with her dowry, totaling £24,000. Despite her complete trust in Richard, she still had her lawyer draft a prenuptial agreement.

"Clearly, this arrangement is unfair to us women. Husbands can rely on the law to obtain all of their wives' property, while we can only exercise our rights to our property through trust agreements. Even if the husband wants to exploit loopholes, this right cannot be fully protected by law. Only equity is willing to support us."

When discussing this matter, Mary recalled the wife she had met who had been sold by her husband. Women like herself, Anne, Elizabeth, and even Susan, who could stipulate "sole and exclusive right to use" premarital property through a trust agreement, were a minority, or rather, this was a privilege reserved by law for wealthy women.

For example, Charlotte and Thomas Smith each owned a portion of the Price Garment Factory before their marriage, but legally, these shares, including her post-marital wages, belonged to her husband. If Mr. Smith hadn't been such an honest man, Charlotte wouldn't have dared to marry him.

“Therefore, women with property must choose their husbands carefully, for noble character is the greatest guarantee of a marriage.” Anne looked at Elizabeth and Mary, who had been married for some time, and smiled. “Looking at William’s performance over the years, I think you should have great confidence in Richard and His Highness the Duke’s character.”

“Should we rely solely on the virtues of men?” Mary shook her head. “Besides, we’re alright, but what about the female factory workers? They have to hand over the money they work so hard to earn to their alcoholic, abusive, and lazy husbands. The law even supports this behavior. Isn’t that cruel?”

For six or seven years after her marriage, Mary relentlessly sought out women who shared her views. Taking advantage of her position managing the factory, she and Charlotte collected evidence of the tragic fates of countless women under current marriage and property laws.

In the year King George IV died, the same year the July Revolution broke out in France, Marie Antoinette and all her friends who were dissatisfied with the status of women drafted a petition to amend the property laws for married women.

They collected signatures across the country, and within just three months, the petition garnered over 20,000 signatures. The petition was submitted to the House of Lords by the Duke of Devonshire and to the House of Commons by MP Richard Price, but it was largely ignored.

At this time, the Whig Party had regained its majority in Parliament, and Prime Minister Earl Grey was focused on parliamentary reform, unwilling to create further trouble for himself. This petition, representing women's rights, was not only scorned by conservative Tories, but even many Whigs were unwilling to support it.

Subsequently, Mary published an article in her own newspaper entitled "An Analysis of the Status Quo of Married Women in England." In the article, Mary concluded: "There is a system that dictates that one sex must be the slave of the other sex, and that they are not treated as human beings at all. That is the system for women. Every woman should be aware that she wears an invisible chain around her neck, which is the mark of her becoming a slave to her husband."

Many noblewomen, including the Countess of Carlyle, the Countess of Fitzwilliam, and the Countess of Gower (the Countess of Carlyle's second daughter), as well as female writers and actresses, have come forward to support the Duchess of Devonshire.

When the Reform Act of 1832 was passed, Earl Grey was surprised to find that women’s demands for property rights had become an undeniable voice and had gained the sympathy and support of many.

Against this backdrop, the English Succession Act was enacted in 1833. While this law maintained the principle of male-first inheritance, it made some modifications to the proportion of inheritance for women, and clarified the priority of testamentary succession.

Through the efforts of Mary and others, the claim of married women to retain sole income from premarital personal property has been supported by law, but the law still stipulates that the owner of the property is the husband; the law allows women to inherit up to two hundred pounds of property from the nearest relative through a deed or will during the marriage, but there are no provisions for inheritances exceeding two hundred pounds; the scope of land inheritance for unmarried women has been expanded to include freely held, book-held, and customarily held land and rent.

Mary was far from satisfied with this outcome, especially for lower-class women whose premarital assets were almost nonexistent, and the law did nothing to change their status.

“There’s nothing we can do. Upper-class women don’t need to work. For them, it’s enough to ensure they can retain the income from their premarital assets. You’ve always insisted on employing female workers in your factories because you wanted these women who earned income to speak out. But now it seems that those big shots don’t intend to listen to the voices of the lower classes.” Charlotte looked at Mary, utterly helpless.

At this point, Mary's aristocratic friends had fallen silent; Mary couldn't force them to think about people who didn't belong to their social class.

“We must continue to win the support of female workers. Right now, those in power can’t hear their voices, but as more and more women get involved in the workforce, they will realize that their rights are being taken away. Once the women’s voices are loud enough, the men in power will no longer be able to ignore us. And then there are the female artists, writers, singers, and others around us. They all earn their money through their own abilities, and these people will definitely be willing to support us.”

The struggle for rights is never smooth sailing, and Mary has no intention of giving up.

“William, isn’t the newly enacted law enough to satisfy the Duchess?” Earl Grey asked with a smile after a meeting of the House of Lords. “Now, her doing this won’t do you any good either.”

“Your Excellency Prime Minister, I believe my wife’s request is not problematic. She simply wants married women to receive the same treatment as unmarried women,” William said, looking at the elderly man before him. “As long as the direction is right, she will persist, just like my mother.”

Earl Grey paused slightly, then said, "Leave these matters to Viscount Melbourne. I am an old man who should be enjoying a peaceful retirement."

Having passed the parliamentary reform bill, the Earl of Grey had fulfilled his greatest wish and no longer wanted to concern himself with trivial women's rights.

Mary, having learned of the Prime Minister's attitude from her husband, did not lose faith. As she told Charlotte, since the upper-level approach was temporarily blocked, she would first lay a solid foundation at the lower level.

In the days that followed, Mary not only continued to improve the working conditions of the female workers in her factory and help them solve the difficulties they encountered, but also went with Charlotte to Manchester in Lancashire to contact the female workers in the textile factory, encourage them to form a union, and fight for their rights.

The clever factory worker who had helped Charlotte became the leader of the textile workers' union, giving Mary and Charlotte hope for change.

Although Mary continued to promote simple ready-to-wear clothing in London, this trend did not reach Manchester. Here, textile workers still wore long skirts they had sewn themselves, walking in the harsh working conditions of the factories.

“Professional women need more convenient clothing,” Mary wrote in her Vogue magazine.

At a horse race, she openly wore the wide-legged trousers she had previously designed, which naturally drew strong criticism from traditionalists. Like the French writer George Sand, if she weren't now a duchess and a member of the aristocracy, Marie suspects she would have been imprisoned.

In addition to promoting new clothing, Mary also established a special school to provide women with vocational education in languages, arithmetic, textile technology, sewing machine operation, and clothing design. This school was not set up for girls from the middle and upper classes; it was established specifically to provide subsidies for working-class families. Women who graduated from the school could also get opportunities to work in Price's factories or companies.

Mary's efforts paid off. As more and more women stepped out of the home and earned their own income, their awareness of their rights began to grow. More women realized that if married women's property was not protected by law, they would forever be appendages of men.

In 1839, the Married Women's Property Act was finally enacted thanks to the struggle of feminists led by Mary. It clearly stipulated that "any wages and income earned by any married woman through any work, profession, or business she undertakes; any property acquired through literature, art, or science and technology; and any investment (returns) made with wages, income, or property shall be solely for her use, independent of her husband, and receipts shall be sufficient proof of her ownership of wages, income, and property." (Note 1)

When this law was passed, Queen Victoria had been on the throne for two years. When she was a young girl, Mary and her husband William had hosted her at Chatsworth House.

It was through Mary that the young Queen learned about the plight of lower-class women. A factory worker toiled hard to earn enough to support her family, but her alcoholic and gambling husband could easily take away her wages, leaving her children hungry and dying of starvation.

“Since a woman takes on the burden of family responsibilities through her work, she should be treated legally as an equal to a man.” Mary’s words left a deep impression on the Queen, who had not yet ascended the throne.

More and more women joined Mary's ranks, and in 1856, the Married Women's Property Act was amended. This time, legally, married women in England could finally dispose of their property as freely as they had when they were unmarried, without any interference from anyone.

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Author's Note: Note 1: Quoted from the UK Married Women's Property Act 1870