Notion of women as property and marital duty a 'depravity baked into law'

French MPs on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill seeking to end "marital duty", after criticism about its use to ignore sexual consent in marriage and marital rape. Michele Goodwin, Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy at Georgetown University, says that 'legislatures have played a significant role in keeping women far behind' and that 'because of these philosophies in law, women could be sexually abused by their husbands and even their boyfriends'.