The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c13.90

c13.90

Smṛitis have laid down that any income, which a wife will acquire by her own exertions, will not be her Strīdhana, but will be merged in the general income of the family. We have already shown above (*ante*, p. 263) how this apparently unreasonable rule came to be laid down. Circumstances have, however, changed now. It is but fair to admit that what an educated wife earns as a teacher, or a professor, or a doctor, or an uneducated wife as a field labourer or a factory worker, should be primarily regarded as her own property. The husband should have no right over it. It should be left entirely to the wife, as to what portion of her earnings she would devote to the general family expenditure. In actual practice it would be found that a woman factory worker, for instance, will spend a lesser amount on herself than her husband would do, out of the wages they receive from their employer.