Under the common‐law system of coverture in the United States, a married woman relinquished control of property and wages to her husband. Many U.S. states passed acts between 1850 and 1920 that expanded a married woman's right to keep her market earnings and to own separate property. The former were called married women's earnings acts (MWEAs) and the latter married women's property acts (MWPAs). Scholarly interest in the acts’ effects is growing, with researchers examining how the acts affected outcomes such as women's wealth holding and educational attainment. The acts’ impact on women's nonmarital birth decisions remains unexamined, however. We postulate that the acts caused women to anticipate greater benefits from having children within rather than outside of marriage. We thus expect the passage of MWPAs and MWEAs to reduce the likelihood that single women become mothers of young children. We use probit regression to analyze individual data from the U.S. Census for the years 1860 to 1920. We find that the property acts in fact reduced the likelihood that single women have young children. We also find that the “de‐coverture” acts’ effects were stronger for literate women, for U.S.‐born women, in states with higher female labor‐force participation, and in more rural states, consistent with predictions.

中文翻译：

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美国的单身母亲和废除掩护

在普通法的掩护制度下在美国，已婚妇女放弃了对丈夫财产和工资的控制。美国许多州在1850年至1920年之间通过了法案，扩大了已婚妇女保留其市场收入和拥有单独财产的权利。前者被称为已婚妇女的收入法（MWEA），后者被称为已婚妇女的财产法（MWPA）。随着研究人员研究这些行为如何影响诸如女性的财富持有和受教育程度之类的结果，学术界对该行为的影响正在增长。但是，这些行为对妇女非婚生决定的影响尚待研究。我们假定，这些行为使妇女预期在婚姻之内而不是婚姻之外生孩子会带来更大的好处。因此，我们期望通过MWPA和MWEA来减少单身女性成为幼儿母亲的可能性。我们使用概率回归分析了1860年至1920年美国人口普查的个人数据。我们发现，财产行为实际上降低了单身女性生小孩的可能性。我们还发现，与预期相符，识字妇女，美国出生的妇女，在女性劳动力参与度较高的州以及在更多的农村州，“剥夺”行为的影响更大。