If the wife is under age or judicially pronounced incapable of managing her own affairs, the husband becomes her guardian for the time being; but if the husband is pronounced incapable in a similar manner, the wife becomes his guardian and takes charge of his affairs. The wife, however, in ordinary circumstances is under the husband’s control. Her disabilities arise not from her sex as such, but from her status of _feme-covert_; for though political rights are still denied to women, no discrimination is made in the private rights of the two sexes. It is only when she marries that she cedes to her husband many of her rights as _feme-sole_. There are certain acts, for instance, for which she is required by the Civil Code to obtain her husband’s permission, such as the receipt and use of a capital sum, contracting of debts, bringing of actions at court, carrying on of a trade or business on her own account, and making of contracts binding herself to service for a specific term; but the permission may be dispensed with if her husband’s whereabouts are unknown, or he has wilfully deserted her, is pronounced incapable, is under restraint for lunacy, or is serving a term of imprisonment exceeding one year, or if his interests clash with hers. The wife may have separate property. She is at liberty to make any arrangement with her husband for its management and disposal; but such arrangement must be registered not later than the registration of the marriage itself, or it cannot be upheld before her heirs or set up against third parties. In fact, all contracts between husband and wife may by mutual consent be altered or cancelled at any time; but such alteration or cancellation cannot be upheld to the prejudice of a third party. This right to hold property in her own name is a great concession to the wife, for such rights were formerly utterly ignored. In the old days, everything belonged to the husband as head of the family, not only any property that the wife might bring or inherit, but also any estate, real or personal, that might be acquired by any other member of the family. All its members were supposed to work for the benefit of the family, and the head as its sole representative had absolute control of the property so acquired. But now in recognition of the rights of the individual as against those of the family as a whole, the Civil Code permits the separate registration of property by its subordinate members.