A Cambridge academic has discovered that an archaic law that actively discriminates against women is still in use across the UK despite parliament passing an act to ban the legislation five years ago.
According to Alysia Blackham, from Cambridge University’s Faculty of Law, the Presumption of Advancement is a pre-Victorian law that assumes property transferred from men to their spouse or child is intended as a gift, but does not apply to property belonging to women.
Abolished by the Labour government in 2010, the legislation was due to be removed by section 199 of the Equality Act 2010, but this section was not pushed through in the coming years and has allowed the continued use of the law in inheritance cases around the country.
According to Ms Blackham, the property legislation is creating a hole in the law, allowing the separation of genders to remain present and acceptable within the modern British legal system.
“It’s problematic given the law is generally supposed to give equal rights to women and men, irrespective of gender, and government are not addressing it,” Ms Blackham said. “As a symbol, PoA is highly sexist; and its continued existence makes gender discrimination part of the law of the land.”