Wives as Joint Tenants

Interesting article from The Pioneer 22/11/1916 uncovered by twitter.com/WW1Greenwich

Good to read that the early version of the Progress Estate Residents' Association was forward thinking.

"Wives as Joint Tenants

The Pioneer 22/11/1916

The recently adopted constitution of the Well Hall Garden City Tenants' Association contains a claus requiring that its executive committee shall be composed equally of men and women.  Moreover, this representation of women on the executive committee is not dependant upon the vagaries of a vote at a general meeting, but is actually embodied in the constitution as an unchallengeable right belonging to the women.

Unfortunately men have not yet become accustomed to voting for women as they do for men, and it was felt that women's position on the executive committee should be safeguarded till that time arrives.  The association has, from its inception, admitted women to its membership on the same terms as men and has loyally endeavoured to allow them equally opportunity for expressing their needs and opinions.

This practical recognition of the moral claim of wives to be considered as joint tenants deserves our full appreciation.  

Legally, of course this wife has neither rights, nor responsibilities for the house she inhabits, although the majority of tenancies depend, in a very real sense, upon her existence and upon her fulfilment of necessary, though legally unrecognised, duties.  Most wives occupy their house about twice as much as their husbands, because the house in not only their living place, but their place of employment.  And it must be remembered that the house is a workshop to which no laws penetrate to regulate hours of labour and prevent sweating.  T'here is no legal enforcement of payment for the services rendered there."