Wives have long been neglected as a topic of scholarly research. The invisibility of married women in England within the historical record, the complexities of their legal and economic status, and an erroneous belief that women’s activities were confined to the domestic has meant that little attention has been focussed exclusively on wives. Now, however, new scholarship is challenging the orthodoxy of previously dominant ‘private sphere’ narratives and demonstrating that the roles available to married women were more nuanced and dynamic than mainstream assumptions have allowed. This edited volume brings together new research from a number of disciplines to interrogate key issues relating to married women during the long eighteenth century: coverture and the law, literary representation and ideology, paid labour and property ownership. In doing so, it also explores new cross-chronological and multi-disciplinary models that will direct future research.

Wives have long been neglected as a topic of scholarly research. The invisibility of married women in England within the historical record, the complexities of their legal and economic status, and an erroneous belief that women’s activities were confined to the domestic has meant that little attention has been focussed exclusively on wives. Now, however, new scholarship is challenging the orthodoxy of previously dominant ‘private sphere’ narratives and demonstrating that the roles available to married women were more nuanced and dynamic than mainstream assumptions have allowed. This edited volume brings together new research from a number of disciplines to interrogate key issues relating to married women during the long eighteenth century: coverture and the law, literary representation and ideology, paid labour and property ownership. In doing so, it also explores new cross-chronological and multi-disciplinary models that will direct future research.