By Sujata Dand, KERA Reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-687706.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Louise Raggio: During the 60s, I was really trying to get leadership in the state bar of Texas. Texas had the worst laws in the whole United States, discriminatory, especially toward married women.
Sujata Dand: The 1960s was a decade of change for the Raggios - the law firm was growing, the boys were turning into men, and Louise was stepping into politics.
Raggio: Basically, when a man and woman married, they said the husband and wife are one, and he was the one. Because all of her property rights when she married were not hers anymore.
Dand: The women's movement was taking shape nationally, but there was little activity in the south. In TX, married women basically had the same rights as children. A woman could run her own legal affairs only if she was single, widowed or divorced.
Raggio: If she owned an apartment house, free and clear, when she married the rents belonged to her husband. Ah, she couldn't sell property without his joint or in consent. And if she had a bank account he could tell the bank not to let her withdraw any of her funds.
Dand: Louise was aggravated by the legal restrictions imposed on married women. She had experienced them both personally and professionally.
Raggio: Many of us believed that we married women lawyers, we married women doctors, we married women accountants were practicing illegally because, theoretically, we should have had our husbands sign every pleading that we prepared. When I had to make bonds, I would have to take the papers and have my husband sign the bond because as a married woman, my signature was not valid.
Dand: Texas lawmakers weren't quite ready to pass the equal rights amendment, so Louise tried a different approach introducing a new statute that would change Texas property law.
Raggio: The Marital Property Act of 1967 actually gave the same results as a Constitutional amendment. This was massive legislation that changed Texas law 180 degrees.