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ents and who had grounds for divorce, to engage in business to support herself, free from claims upon her earnings by her husband or his creditors.

The common law disabilities of coverture have long since disappeared in California. A married woman can freely contract (Civil Code, Section 158); can sue and be sued in her own name without joining her husband (Code of Civil Procedure, Section 370); she controls her separate property (Civil Code, Section 162) and, with some limitations, controls community property derived from her earnings until those earnings are commingled with the other community property (Civil Code, Section 171c). Her earnings are not liable for her husband's debts, except for necessaries furnished to her or her husband while they are living together (Civil Code, Section 168). Her earnings, while she is living separate from her husband, are the separate property of the wife (Civil Code, Section 169). The reasons for the Sole Trader Statutes no longer exist.

While the law which requires these superfluous procedures is essentially a property law (the Sole Trader Statutes), the commission determined that immediate repeal of the Sole Trader Statute would be in order pending broader reform.

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE-SEDUCTION THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS

That Sections 374 and 375 of the Code of Civil Procedure providing for actions for damages for the seduction of an unmarried female below the age of legal consent be repealed.

Code of Civil Procedure, Sections 374 and 375, give a cause of action for damages to an unmarried, previously chaste female and to her parents for her seduction occurring before she has reached the age of legal consent. Both because of the social stigma attached to the action and the difficulties of proof, litigation under these sections has been extremely rare.

The social policy of preventing sexual intercourse with immature girls is vindicated by the penal sanctions imposed for statutory rape (Penal Code, Section 261, subsection 1). In a prosecution for statutory rape the people need not prove that the prosecutrix was previously chaste or was unmarried at the time of the act upon which the prosecution was based.

The commission believes that Code of Civil Procedure Sections 374 and 375 are both outmoded and useless and should be repealed.

The California progenitor of these statutes was an 1872 statute giving a father a cause of action for damages for his daughter's seduction. Civil actions for seduction, like actions for damages for breach of promise to marry, date back centuries to an era in which contracts of marriage were instruments of economic and political policy, often resembling business mergers or mercantile sales. During the same. historical period women and children were legally regarded chattels. A seduced daughter was not as "merchantable" as a chaste one, and the father who "owned" her was accordingly damaged.

as

PROBATE CODE

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS That Section 1431 of the Probate Code be amended by deleting the language hereinafter set forth in brackets and by adding the italic language:

"When a minor has a disputed claim for damages, money or other property against a third person, his father or mother, or if [his father is dead or] the parents of said minor are living separate or apart [and his mother then has care or custody of said minor then his mother] then the parent who then has care or custody of said minor, or the guardian of the estate, if any, of the minor, shall have the right to compromise, or execute a covenant not to sue on, such a claim but

The amendment is intended to give the mother and father of the minor the equal right to compromise the minor's claim. There appears to the commission no reason to discriminate against the mother in approving minors' compromises. Moreover, there are occasions when the present statute creates a hardship which the amendment would avoid as, for example, when the father and mother are not legally separated, but the father is absent from the state at the time the minor's claim should be settled.

PENAL CODE

The Penal Code reflects few, if any, unnecessary distinctions between the sexes. The commission makes no recommendation for changes in the Penal Code at the present time, except in respect of the law of

abortion.

THE LAW OF ABORTION

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS That existing abortion laws be reformed and new laws be enacted controlling therapeutic abortions.

At the present time, every person who provides, supplies, or administers to any woman or procures any woman to take any substance or uses any instru

at or any other means with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless the same is necessary to preserve her life, is guilty of a felony. Every woman who solicits a miscarriage or who submits to any operation or other means to procure a miscarriage, unless the same is necessary to preserve her life, is guilty of a felony (California Penal Code, Sections 274-276).

The substance of these statutes has not been materially changed since the statutes were initially enacted in 1850. For more than one hundred years, therefore,

anyone who has participated in procuring an abortion has been subject to severe penal sanctions unless the miscarriage was induced to save the life of the woman. The law as it presently stands does not exempt from criminal sanctions the performance of an abortion or the submission to an abortion even if the fetus is gravely deformed, even if the woman would suffer serious physical or mental injury unless the pregnancy be interrupted, or even if the pregnancy has resulted from rape or incest.

The gravity of the social, moral and ethical problems of abortion and the impact of the existing law upon thousands of women in the State of California cannot be overestimated. The commission believes that the abortion laws are urgently in need of revision and reform.

LAWS OF DOMICILE

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS

That a major study of the law of domicile in all of its aspects and as affecting both men and women should be made.

Although there is some reason to believe that the law of domicile, in some of its aspects, may discriminate against married women, the subject of domicile is such a complex one that no specific recommendations can be made without a study in depth of the subject which our commission has neither the time nor the resources to undertake.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE PROVISIONS THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS

That study and work continue on the subject of divorce and separation.

The subject of the laws and practices relating to divorce and separation is a vast and complex one and affects the entire society. Subsequent to the establishment of the Advisory Commission on the Status of Women by the Legislature, former Governor Ed

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mund G. Brown appointed a Governor's Commission on the Family. Inasmuch as that commission was charged with a study of social and legal procedures for dealing with divorce, an independent study was not made by this commission.

Recommendations: Political Rights

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Political rights for the purpose of this report are deemed to encompass the rights of women to vote, to participate in the elective process through activity in organized politics, to qualify for and serve in elective and appointive public offices and to serve upon grand and petit juries.

There are no significant statutory disabilities to prevent women from assuming fully the duties and exercising the rights of political equality. Although we know that women have not participated to the extent warranted by their capabilities and by their numbers and stake in political life, the reasons for their disproportionate political role, we believe, depend upon social attitudes and customs and not upon limitations of statutory or case law. We, therefore, make no recommendation for statutory changes in connection with political rights.

ELECTIONS CODE

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS

Repeal of that portion of subsection (b) of Section 310 of the California Elections Code providing as follows: "The given name of women shall be preceded in all cases by the designation of Miss or Mrs.”

Section 310 of subsection (b) of the California Elections Code requires that women describe their marital status when registering to vote. No substantial useful purpose is served by this discriminatory requirement and it is considered by this commission unnecessary for identification purposes. It is an historical anachro

nism.

The study covered a total of 313 establishments with 10,500 office workers and 48,300 plant workers. Firms having fewer than 50 employees were not represented in the survey. Six broad industry divisions were represented: Manufacturing; transportation, communication, and other public utilities; wholesale trade; retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and services. Major industry groups excluded were government operations and the construction and extractive industries.

The San Bernardino-Riverside-Ontario metropolitan area includes San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.

Includes data for wholesale trade; retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and services in addition to those industry divisions shown separately. b Transportation, communication, and other public utilities.

Includes data for wholesale trade, retail trade, real estate, and services in addition to those industry divisions shown separately.

d Less than 0.5 percent.

NOTE: Detail may not add to total because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Area Wage Survey, San Bernardino-Riverside-Ontario, California, September 1965.