Under the common law, wives had no legal status as persons apart from their husbands. While this has been reformed by statute, the Saskatchewan Married Persons’ Property Act does not create legal equality between married men and women. This report reviews some discriminatory sections and recommends that an Equality of Status of Married Persons Act be enacted to simplify and modernize the law.
Publications by Key Term: gender equality
Equality of Status of Married Persons Act: Tentative Proposals May 1981
There are still examples of discrimination on the basis of marital status within Saskatchewan statutes. Married women are presumed dependent on their husbands in many provincial laws enacted in the early 1900s. Reform is needed to abolish this assumption.