1. Property and possessions she owned before marriage became her husband’s and property she inherited after her marriage passed directly to her husband.
2. Wages she earned were his.
3. In the event of a divorce, he had custody of their children.
4. She could not sign a business contract.
5. She could not sue anyone.
6. She could not be sued by anyone.
7. Her husband had to pay all her debts.
8. On the other hand, if she committed a crime, she was punished for it.

It shall be lawful for any married female to receive, by gift, grant, devise or bequest, from any person other than her husband and held to her sole and separate use, as if she were a single female, real and personal property, and the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and the same shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts...

Any married woman may, while married, sue and be sued in all matters having relation to her...sole and separate property...in the same manner as if she were sold. And any married woman may bring and maintain an action in her own name, for damages, against any person or body corporate, for any injury to her person or character, the same as if she were sole; and the money received upon the settlement...shall be her sole and separate property.

No bargain or contract made by any married woman, in respect to her sole and separate property...shall be binding upon her husband, or render him or his property in any way liable therefore.

Every married woman is hereby constituted and declared to be the joint guardian or her children, with her husband, with equal powers, rights, and duties in regard to them, with the husband...

[Source: Linda K. Kerber and Jane Sherron De Hart, Editors, Women’s America: Refocusing the Past. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995]

The question is presented in this case, whether, since the adoption of the fourteenth amendment, a woman, who is a citizen of the United States and of the State of Missouri, is a voter in that State, notwithstanding the provision of the constitution and laws of the State, which confine the right of suffrage to men alone...The argument is, that as a woman, born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, is a citizen of the United States and of the State in which she resides, she has the right of suffrage as one of the privileges and immunities of her citizenship, which the State cannot by its laws or constitution abridge.

There is no doubt that women may be citizens. They are persons, and by the fourteenth amendment, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are expressly declared to be “citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” But, in our opinion, it did not need this amendment to give them that position...sex has never been made one of the elements of citizenship in the United States. In this respect men have never had an advantage over women. The same laws precisely apply to both. The fourteenth amendment did not affect the citizenship of women any more than it did of men...Mrs. Minor...has always been a citizen from he birth, and entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizenship.

If the right of suffrage is one of the necessary privileges of a citizen of the United States, then the constitution and laws of Missouri confining it to men are in violation of the Constitution of the United States, as amended, and consequently void. The direct question is, therefore, presented whether all citizens are necessarily voters.

The Constitution does not define the privileges and immunities of citizens. For that definition we must look elsewhere. In this case we need not determine what they are, but only whether suffrage is necessarily one of them.

It certainly is nowhere made so in express terms. The United States has no voters in the States of its own creation. The elective officers of the United States are all elected directly or indirectly by state voters. . . it cannot for a moment be doubted that if it had been intended to make all citizens of the United States voters, the framers of the Constitution would not have left it to implication...

It is true that the United States guarantees to every State a republican form of government...No particular government is designated as republican, neither is the exact form to be guaranteed, in any manner especially designated... When the Constitution was adopted...all the citizens of the States were not invested with the right of suffrage. In all, save perhaps New Jersey, this right was only bestowed upon men and not upon all of them...Under these circumstances it is certainly now too late to contend that a government is not republican, within the meaning of this guaranty in the Constitution, because women are not made voters...If suffrage was intended to be included within its obligations, language better adapted to express that intent would most certainly have been employed...

...For nearly ninety years the people have acted upon the idea that the Constitution, when it conferred citizenship, did not necessarily confer the right of suffrage. If uniform practice long constituted can settle the construction of so important an instrument as the Constitution of the United States confessedly is, most certainly it has been done here. Our province is to decide what the law is, not to decide what it should be.

We have given this case careful consideration its importance demands. If the law is wrong, it ought to be changed; but the power for that is not with us...No argument as to woman’s need of suffrage can be considered. We can only act upon her rights as they exist. . .

[Source: Linda K. Kerber and Jane Sherron De Hart, Editors, Women’s America: Refocusing the Past. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995]

Section 2: The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.