A Woman's Philosophy of Woman; or, Woman affranchised.: An answer to Michelet, Proudhon, Girardin, Legouvé, Comte, and other modern innovatorsHéricourt, Madame d'
Philosophy
A Woman's Philosophy of Woman; or, Woman affranchised.: An answer to Michelet, Proudhon, Girardin, Legouvé, Comte, and other modern innovators
Héricourt, Madame d'
Women's rights -- France
AUTHOR. Very well; I see with pleasure that you are cured of the
erroneous belief that the children _belong_ to the parents, and that you
comprehend the high function of society as the protector of minors.
During the suit for divorce, who shall have the control of the property?
READER. If the contract has been made under the system of separation of
property, and for paraphernalia, there is no need of putting the
question; each one will manage his own.
But I am somewhat puzzled how to answer you in case of communion of
goods, or in case the capital is embarked in a common business, carried
on solely by one of the parties. The present law does not seem to me
sufficiently to protect the interests of the wife in case of separation.
AUTHOR. Without entangling ourselves in a host of individual cases which
modify or contradict each other, let us provide that in case of communion
of goods, the administration of the property shall be taken from the
spouse holding it if the petition for divorce be based on his bad
management, his dissipated habits, or his condemnation to a penalty
affecting his liberty or person; that in all other cases, he shall make
an inventory of the property and the condition of the business; and a
person shall be appointed from the family of the spouse excluded from the
management to watch over the conduct of the spouse to whom it is
entrusted, who shall be bound to pay alimony to the other until the
divorce shall be decreed.
READER. And if there is no fortune?
AUTHOR. Until the spouses become strangers, they owe assistance to each
other: the court should therefore require the spouse that earns the more
to aid the other.
READER. How long a time should elapse between the admission of the
petition and the judgment of divorce?
AUTHOR. A year, in order that the parties may have time for reflection.
READER. The divorce being granted, and the ex-partners restored to
liberty, would you permit them to marry others?
AUTHOR. Most assuredly; else what signifies our arguments against
separation?
READER. What! the adulterous and brutal spouse, he who has inflicted
suffering on his partner, who has been wholly in the wrong, should enjoy
like the other the privilege of marrying again? I confess that this
shocks me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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