Madelaine de Ranier at the head of a great business concern in Paris found herself forbidden to sign a check, unable to open a bank account. The Count had enlisted on the second day after war was declared and he had left with her a sum of gold. When it was exhausted and she faced the need of funds, she was unable to negotiate a loan on valuable bonds that she owned. Oh, the bonds were all right. The difficulty was that she was a married woman. And though very rich, she nevertheless was obliged to turn to friends who relieved her immediate financial necessities. Now in the drawer of her office desk there is a legal paper bearing the seal of France: across the bottom is printed “_Bon pour autorisation maritale_” and beneath is the Count’s signature. Until he had consented to make this arrangement, sending on from the front this “authorisation of the husband,” she was prohibited from transacting any business. For a married woman in France might not sell property or mortgage it or acquire it or sign a business contract or go to law without the consent of her husband! Women acting temporarily as mayors of some of the French villages, from which almost the entire male population has been mobilised, have found it necessary in order to execute municipal papers to turn to a male citizen for his signature, even though he might not be able to write and could only make his mark. Finally in 1916, the situation came up, for legal decision. The validity of a building contract entered into by a French woman was questioned in court. The judge after mature deliberation rendered a decision that although the woman was not empowered to sign the contract, yet as she had acted with the tacit consent of her husband and in his interest and that of the country, the court would uphold the validity of the act. “It is necessary,” he said, “that for the welfare of France, women shall take the place of men and perform duties which have hitherto been considered outside their sphere.” The Union Fraternelle des Femmes at once began pressing Parliament for the removal from the statute books of the requirement for “_maritale autorisation_.” And not long ago the Chamber of Deputies passed the bill granting to married women for the period of the war, permission to demand from the courts the right to do without this legal formality. Italy in 1917 completely swept away this same ancient restriction. The bill introduced by the Italian Minister of Justice, Signor Sacchi, abrogated not only _maritale autorisation_, but “every other law which in the field of civil and commercial rights curtails the capacities of Italian women.” Speaking for the measure in Parliament, Signor Sacchi declared it an “act of justice—of reparation almost, to which women have now more right than ever.”