Up until the end of the 19th century, the law supported the right of men to control wives by force. When the law intervened it was to restrain violence but not to prevent it.

In 1772 Judge Butler held that assaults on wives were legal provided that husbands used a stick no thicker than his thumb. This has subsequently become known as the "rule of thumb".

In the 1840s a judge affirmed the husband's right to kidnap his wife, beat her and imprison her in the matrimonial home.

In 1878 the Matrimonial Causes Act was passed in the United Kingdom which gave women and children some measure of protection under the law.

It was only as recently as 1990 that the crime of rape within marriage was recognised in this country. Up till then the law held that rape was something "done to a woman by a man other than her husband".

With that history and the existing inequality women still face, is it surprising that some men claim that they have a right to control the behaviour of their wives and partners and to use violence as a means of exercising that control?

History of Women's Aid

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