Timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. That includes actual law reforms as well as other formal changes, such as reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents.

Formal changes and reforms regarding women's right to vote are exempted from this timeline: for that right, see Timeline of women's suffrage. This timeline also excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism: for that, see Timeline of feminism.

Timeline

1800–1849 1803 United Kingdom: Lord Ellenborough's Act was enacted, making abortion after quickening a capital crime, and providing lesser penalties for the felony of abortion before quickening.Lord Ellenborough's Act." (1998). The Abortion Law Homepage. Retrieved February 20, 2007. 1804 Sweden: Women are granted the permit to manufacture and sell candles.Carl Grimberg: Svenska folkets underbara öden / IX. Den sociala och kulturella utvecklingen från Oskar I:s tid till våra dagar samt De politiska förhållandena under Karl XV:s, Oscar II:s och Gustaf V:s regering 1859–1923 (1913–1939) France: Divorce is abolished for women in 1804. France: Equal inheritance rights for women were abolished in 1804. 1810 France: Until 1994, France kept in the French Penal Code the article from 1810 that exonerated a rapist in the event of a marriage to their victim.Lobeiras, Alicia. "The Right to Say I Don't: Forced Marriage as Persecution in the United Kingdom, Spain, and France." Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, vol. 52, 1 Jan. 2014, pp. 896–931. LexisNexis Academic: Law Reviews. France: The 1810 Napoleonic Code of France punished any person who procured an abortion with imprisonment. Sweden: The right of an unmarried woman to be declared of legal majority by royal dispensation is officially confirmed by parliament.Christine Bladh (Swedish): Månglerskor: att sälja från korg och bod i Stockholm 1819–1846 (1991) Sweden: Amendment to the Guild Regulation of 1720 secures the right of all women of legal majority to apply and be granted a permit to work within all guild professions, trades and handicrafts without having to fulfill the normal requirement of male applicants, because of their greater difficulty to support themselves.Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013 1811 Austria: Married women are granted separate economy and the right to choose a profession.Richard J Evans (1979). Kvinnorörelsens historia i Europa, USA, Australien och Nya Zeeland 1840–1920 (The Feminists: Women's Emancipation Movements in Europe, America and Australasia, 1840–1920) Helsingborg: LiberFörlag Stockholm. (Swedish) Sweden: Married businesswomen are granted the right to make decisions about their own affairs without their husband's consent. 1817 England: Public whipping of women abolished (public whipping of men followed in 1868). 1820–1900 United States: Primarily through the efforts of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. were outlawed. 1821 United States, Maine: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse. United States, Connecticut: A law targeted apothecaries who sold "poisons" to women for purposes of inducing an abortion. 1823 Argentina: The charitable Beneficial Society is charged by the government to establish and control (private) elementary schools for girls (they retain the control of the schools for girls until 1876). United Kingdom: Offences Against the Person Act 1828 1827 United States, Illinois: An 1827 Illinois law prohibited the sale of drugs that could induce abortions. The law classed these medications as a "poison". The 1827 law was the first in the nation to impose criminal penalties in connection with abortion before quickening. United States, New York: The first statute to criminalize abortion in New York State was enacted in 1827. This law made post-quickening abortions a felony and made pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor. 1829 India: The Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829 bans the practice of Sati in British Bengal (the ban is extended to Madras and Bombay the following year). Sweden: Midwives are allowed to use surgical instruments, which are unique in Europe at the time and gives them surgical status. Stig Hadenius, Torbjörn Nilsson & Gunnar Åselius: Sveriges historia. Vad varje svensk bör veta (History of Sweden: "What every Swede should know") United States, New York: New York made post-quickening abortions a felony and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor. 1830 Madras and Bombay: The practice of Sati is banned in Madras and Bombay. Monaco and Spain: Male-preference primogeniture is currently practised in succession to the thrones of Monaco and Spain (before 1700 and since 1830). 1833 Spain: A variation on agnatic primogeniture is the so-called semi-Salic law, or "agnatic-cognatic primogeniture", which allows women to succeed only at the extinction of all the male descendants in the male line. Such was the case in Bourbon Spain until 1833. 1835 United States, Arkansas: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. United States, Massachusetts: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse. United States, Tennessee: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse. Ireland: Contraception in Ireland was made illegal in 1835 under the 1835 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act. Greece: The modern Greek state and its penal system were created in the 1830s based on Bavarian laws. The system was designed by Georg Ludwig von Maurer and came into effect in 1835. Articles 303-305 addressed abortion, either performed by a pregnant woman or a third party. Article 303-304: "If the mother who gave birth to a premature or dead infant used prior to that, knowingly, alone or with someone else, internal or external means, [means that] can cause a premature delivery or the death of the fetus in the mother's abdomen, she is punished with imprisonment. The same penalty is imposed on the midwives or pharmacists or others in the medical service who cause abortion with the consent of the pregnant woman or by recommending or by providing the means for performing such a felony." These sentences carried a maximum punishment of ten years for both the pregnant woman committing the act herself, as well as for any third party assistants. This law, although amended in the 20th century, remained effectively unchanged and enforced for 90 years. 1839 United Kingdom: The Custody of Infants Act 1839 makes it possible for divorced mothers to be granted custody of their children. United States, Mississippi: The Married Women's Property Act 1839 grants married women the right to own (but not control) property in her own name. 1840 Republic of Texas: Married women allowed to own property in their own name. United States, Maine: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. United States, Maryland: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. 1842 Norway: Unmarried women are given the right to engage in small scale commerce (though only within the country).Lønnå, Elisabeth. (2015, 31. mars). Kvinners Rettigheter I Norge Fra 1814 Til 1913. I Store norske leksikon. Sweden: Compulsory Elementary school for both sexes. United States, New Hampshire: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse. Japan: The Shogunate in Japan banned induced abortion in Edo, but the law did not affect the rest of the country until 1869, when abortion was banned nationwide.Norgren, Tiana. Abortion before Birth Control: The Politics of Reproduction in Postwar Japan Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.Obayashi, M. (1982). Historical background of the acceptance of induced abortion. Josanpu Zasshi 36(12), 1011–6. Retrieved April 12, 2006. United Kingdom: The Mines and Collieries Act 1842, commonly known as the Mines Act 1842, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which forbade women and girls of any age to work underground and introduced a minimum age of ten for boys employed in underground work. 1843 United States, Kentucky: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse. 1844 United States, Maine: Married women granted separate economy. United States, Maine: Married women granted trade license. United States, Massachusetts: Married Women granted separate economy. 1845 Denmark: Married women, despite being minors, are given the right to make a will without the approval of their husbands.Inger Dübeck: Kvinders retlige stilling. I Den Store Danske. Hentet 7. october 2015 Norway: "Law on the vast majority for single women", for which the age of majority was recognized at age 25, without a requirement for submitting to a guardian after that age. Sweden: Equal inheritance for sons and daughters (in the absence of a will).Lilla Focus Uppslagsbok (Little Focus Encyclopedia) Focus Uppslagsböcker AB (1979) United States, New York: Married women granted patent rights. United States, New York: New York passed a statute that said women who had abortions could be given a prison sentence of three months to a year. They were one of the few states at the time to have laws punishing women for getting abortions. United States, Florida: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. 1846 Sweden: All Trade- and crafts works professions previously controlled by the guilds are opened to all women of legal majority through the Fabriks och Handtwerksordning and the Handelsordningen. United States, Alabama: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. United States, Kentucky: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. United States, Ohio: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. United States, Michigan: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse. 1847 Belgium: Elementary school for both genders Costa Rica: The first high school for girls, and the profession of teacher is open to women. 1848 United States, State of New York: Married Women's Property Act grant married women separate economy. United States, Pennsylvania: Married women granted separate economy. United States, Rhode Island: Married women granted separate economy. 1849 India: Secondary education is made available by the foundation of the Bethune School.Bharati Ray:Women of India: Colonial and Post-colonial Periods, 2005 United States, Alabama: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse. United States, Connecticut: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse. United States, Missouri: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. United States, South Carolina: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.

1850–1874 1850s United States, Illinois: When Illinois opened its first hospital for the mentally ill in 1851, the state legislature passed a law that within two years of its passage was amended to require a public hearing before a person could be committed against his or her will. There was one exception, however: a husband could have his wife committed without either a public hearing or her consent. 1850 France: Elementary education for both sexes, but girls are only allowed to be tutored by teachers from the church. Haiti: The first permanent school for girls. Iceland: Equal inheritance.