Caroline Norton

reinecke54, Tuesday, 20.01.2004, 15:56 (vor 8052 Tagen) @ Odin

Als Antwort auf: Resigniert, gekränkt und machtlos (lang aber erschütternd) von Odin am 20. Januar 2004 12:11:19:

Bei der Betrachtung von Vaeterrechten lohnt es auch,
einmal in die Historie zu blicken. Mir faellt dabei
Caroline Norton ein, eine Ikone der Frauenbewegung.

Aus ihrer Lebensgeschichte
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wnorton.htm
kann man zwei Sachen lernen:

1. Wenn vom Mann Gewalt in der Ehe ausgeht, ist die
Frau nicht immer unschuldig. Caroline Norton
hat ihren Mann auf Wunsch ihrer Mutter (um die
Familienfinanzen zu sanieren) geheiratet, und
nicht aus Liebe. Und das liess sie ihren Mann auch
spueren. Ihr Mann George Norton hat sie aber
geliebt. Auf der englischen Seite heisst es

In 1824 Caroline met George Norton, the younger of Lord Grantley. Norton, who was Tory MP for Guildford, immediately fell in love with Caroline and proposed marriage. Caroline, who was only sixteen at the time and still at school, refused. Caroline came under pressure from her mother to accept George Norton's offer. Although she never loved Norton, Caroline agreed to help her mother's financial situation by marrying him.

The marriage took place in 1827 when Caroline was nineteen. The couple had three children, Fletcher (1829), Brinsley (1831) and William (1833). The marriage itself was a disaster. Caroline did not respect her husband finding him dull and lazy. Caroline did not hide her feelings and George responded to her comments with physical violence. On several occasions George Norton had to be restrained by the servants from inflicting serious physical damage.

2. Es ist nicht selbsverstaendlich, dass die Kinder nach der
Scheidung zur Mutter kommen. Das ist nur eine Erscheinung unserer
heutigen Zeit in unserer westlichen Kultur. Das ist nicht so im Islam.
Und das war auch im 19. Jahrhundert in Europa nicht so. Es war genau
umgekehrt. Caroline Norton musste um ihr Besuchsrecht kaempfen.

After visiting relatives, Caroline returned to discover that her husband had given instructions that she could not enter the family home.
...
Despite Norton's defeat in court, he still had the power to deny Caroline access to her children. Caroline wrote a pamphlet explaining the unfairness of this entitled The Natural Claim of a Mother to the Custody of her Children as affected by the Common Law Rights of the Father. Caroline argued that under the present law, a father had absolute rights and a mother no rights at all, whatever the behaviour of the husband. In fact, the law gave the husband the legal right to desert his wife and hand over his children to his mistress. For the first time in history, a woman had openly challenged this law that discriminated against women.

Caroline Norton now began a campaign to get the law changed. Sir Thomas Talfourd, the MP for Reading agreed to Caroline's request to introduce a bill into Parliament which allowed mothers, against whom adultery had not been proved, to have the custody of children under seven, with rights of access to older children.

Tja, klingt doch irgendwie vertraut - nur mit umgekehrtem Vorzeichen.