Definition of "coverture" []

• A covering; a shelter. (noun)
• The state of being concealed; disguise. (noun)
• Law The status of a married woman under common law. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "C: Yes, it comes from common law, called coverture, describing marital roles and duties."
• "The doctrine of "coverture," which subsumed wives into their husbands 'citizenship, eroded during the 19th century, and (white or non-Southern) women became voting citizens in 1919."
• "This doctrine became a way to reconcile the increasing sense that men and women really were equals thanks mostly to the revolution in marriage that made it based on consent and love along with the spread of classical liberal ideas about the inherent rights of individuals with the objective circumstances of the 19th century where men had legal advantages such as coverture that enabled them to control economic resources, as well as having the franchise, which women lacked."