PT103.S4.P4.Q26 > Analytics

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In England before 1660, a husband controlled his wife's property. ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████████ █████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █ █████████ ███

Intro topic / historical context · In late 17th and 18th centuries, marriage in England had features of a contract

Before 1660, husbands controlled wives' property. Implication that this changed after marriage started to become like a contract.

Historians' perspective · Contract aspect of marriage was a gain for women

It reflected changing views about democracy and property after 1660.

Staves' perspective · Judicial decisions undermined any gains from marriage contracts

Staves' support 1 · Definitions of men's and women's property was harmful to women

Example: property inherited by wives after husbands' death couldn't be sold. But property inherited by men from wives could be sold.

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Staves' support 2 · New legal concepts in connection with marriage contracts were unfair to women

Examples: certain limits on pin money and maintenance allowances.

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Historians' response · These problems were minor and would disappear soon

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Staves' response · Judges fell back to pre-1660 assumptions about property

Implication of Staves' work 1 · Staves has changed her view on whether separate maintenance allowances were good for women

Before, she said they were good. Now, she thinks that's oversimplified.

Implication of Staves' work 2 · Challenges an assumption underlying Stones' view

Stones argued that in late 18th century, wealthy men married widows less often than they used to, because more people started to marry for love rather than for financial reasons. Staves counters the assumption that widows had more money than non-widows.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

26.

According to the passage, Staves █████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███████

Question Type

Stated

We’ll find the answer to this Stated question in P2, where the author talks about Staves’ research on judicial decisions. The author states here that Staves indicates that judges often fell back on pre-1660 assumptions about property when making decisions about marriage contracts.

Judges frequently misunderstood ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███████ █████████

We have no indication that judges regularly misunderstood laws; if they misapplied them, they may have done so knowingly.

Judges were aware ██ ███████████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███████████████ █████ ████ ███████

The author states here that historians— not judges— downplayed the inconsistencies and claimed that they’d soon vanish.

11%

Judges' decisions about ████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████████ █████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██████ █████

This is stated here. Staves shows that judges often fell back on pre-1660 assumptions about property when making decisions about marriage contracts. This indicates that their decisions would reflect these assumptions.

78%

Judges had little █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ █████████

Actually, P2 discusses how judges did have influence on laws concerning married women’s property. Staves’ research comes from court cases, and she notes that judges fell back to pre-1660 assumptions about property when applying the law.

Judges recognized the ███████████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ██████

Anti-supported. Staves actually argues that judges relied on pre-1660 assumptions about property when making decisions about marriage contracts. These assumptions favored men and did not protect women.

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PrepTest 103 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 26

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