I posted "The Homesteading Rights of Deserted Wives: A History" on SSRN. It is forthcoming in the Nebraska Law Review. It sounds super specific, but I'm optimistic some of you will appreciate it. Here's a list of people who might love it: 1/7

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3665253

(But first the thesis: The Fed Gov't allowed women to claim homesteads only if single. Married women did not qualify. Married women who had been deserted by husbands initially fell through the cracks. This paper tracks the rights of deserted wives & makes some arguments.) 2/7

People who care about Administrative Law - The article collects and interprets a bunch of administrative law decisions from the Dep't of Interior / General Land Office. There's interesting stuff including about the use of precedent & how new leadership impacted outcomes. 3/7

People who care about Legal History - The administrative decisions I analyze have only been cited by one historian, and (as far as I can tell) no legal scholars. They help contextualize how female homesteaders operated under the constraints of the gendered land-grant laws. 4/7

People who care about Women's Rights - The deserted wives gained substantial rights over time and the paper tracks this positive trajectory in detail. Let's just say it is fascinating and unique that the federal gov't was giving women land in the late 1800s & early 1900s. 5/7

People who care about Marital Relationships - Under the law deserted wives had more economic opportunity than married women. Women challenged husbands directly. And the government was incentivized to declare marriages over so women could get land & support themselves. 6/7

People who loved Little House on the Prairie as Kids - There are race/indigenous/immigration issues at play when we talk about homesteading. Yet, it's super cool to read about individual women who battled not only the landscape but also the legal system to get their land. 7/7