"Head and Master" laws were a set of American laws that permitted a husband to have final say regarding all household decisions and jointly owned property without his wife's knowledge or consent, until 1979 when Louisiana became the final state to repeal them. Until then, the matter of who paid for property or whose name was on had been irrelevant. Official language(s) de jure: none de facto: English & French Capital Baton Rouge Largest city Baton Rouge [1] Area  Ranked 31st  - Total 51,885 sq mi (134,382 km²)  - Width 130 miles (210 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 16  - Latitude 29°N to 33°N  - Longitude 89°W...

The law existed on the basis that the legal definition of marriage, during the the period the laws were in effect, delegated husband's role as supporting the family and the wife's as housekeeping, childrearing, and providing sex.

Historical Example

In Louisiana, 1974, Joan Feenstra had her husband incarcerted for molesting their young daughter. To pay his lawyer, he mortgaged their home, which the law did not require his wife's knowledge or permission to do, despite that the wife had fully paid for the house herself. Feenstra then dropped the charges, legally separated from her husband, and returned to court to challenge the constitutionality of the law. The Supreme Court invalidated the mortgage, concluding that the statute was, in fact, unconstitutional. ^[1]

References

Further reading

• Past, Present, Future of Marriage
• 'Traditional' Marriage Has Changed a Lot