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Pablo Andreu's avatar

Yeah, pretty terrible. Not to mention women couldn't divorce men, even if they were unfaithful or abusive, but men could divorce women, which left women, especially working class women, with few opportunities. Many "respectable" jobs were cut off to them. Many had to prove "destitution" to get government assistance, which required some women to enter the dreaded workhouse. That imprinted yet another stigma. A husband leaving his wife was essentially a social death sentence for her.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Yes, you are absolutely right. It was deplorable.

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Linda George's avatar

When I said "Another gem," I meant the book you read AND your article about it!

You should gather all your articles about women into a book! I'd be thrilled to proofread it for you to catch typos, agreement--all the pickies--no charge! I'll buy the first copy! Aim for 150 pages. More articles? Another book!

You're an amazing writer! Books would reach a lot more appreciative readers!

Hugs and love,

Linda

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Linda Caroll's avatar

You know why I haven't? Couple of reasons. First, 1% of books sell over 5000 copies and 15% sell over 200 copies. It seems like a lot of work for lousy results. Which leads to the second part. When I write online, I can link to sources and give all the proper credits. But it works differently in a published book. Then I have to reach out, ask permission, do proper citations and credits, etc. based on print publishing, which is different than writing online.

Seems to me half the book would be proper citations or risk repercussion for not giving proper regard to how citations and permission works in the print world. Maybe at some point in the future, I'll have sufficient savings in the bank to devote that amount of time to reaching out and asking permission for every fact I cite and person I quote, but right now it feels like an overwhelming time expense for what would amount to little result. You know?

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Kathleen Joy  Anderson's avatar

And a man could have his wife committed to an insane asylum for disobeying him. Read The Woman They Couldn’t Silence by Kate Moore. It’s a true story about a woman who refused to submit and whose experience led to reforms in the laws.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

I just ordered it. Thanks, Kathleen. Looking forward to reading it. Hope you follow this pub, because I'll write about it once I'm done reading. :)

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Linda Ann Robinson's avatar

Ugh, is all I can say.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Right?

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Linda George's avatar

Another gem! Yeech!

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Linda Caroll's avatar

lol. The book was hilarious, taken in small doses.

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