Access to divorce was difficult for women, and those who were beaten or otherwise treated badly by their husbands attracted considerable public sympathy. This 1887 cartoon shows blindfolded Justice holding a divorce-extension bill and saying, ‘I demand that this unhappy woman be released from her contract. Her husband is making a hideous mockery of her life.’ A minister, representing the church, responds, ‘No, my dear Madam, they are husband and wife and to part them would be unscriptural.’
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Alexander Turnbull Library
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J-065-026
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