Story: Gender inequalities

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.’