Historically, married women in most cultures had very few rights of their own, as they, along with the children of the family, were considered the property of the husband; as such, they could not own or inherit property, or legally represent themselves (see, for example, coverage). In Europe, the United States and other places in the developed world, marriage has undergone gradual legal changes from the late 19th century and throughout the 21st century aimed at improving women's rights.

These changes include giving husbands separate legal identities, abolishing husbands' right to physically discipline their wives, granting property rights to wives, liberalizing divorce laws, granting wives their own reproductive rights, and requiring of a woman's consent when sexual relations take place. These changes have mainly occurred in western countries. In the 21st century, controversies persist over the legal status of married women, legal acceptance or leniency regarding marital violence (particularly sexual assault), traditional marriage customs such as dowry and dowry, forced marriage, age of marriage and criminalization of consensual behavior such as premarital and extramarital sex.

Marriage, also called marriage or marriage, is a socially or ritually recognized union between spouses that establishes rights and duties between them, between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws. The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but it is primarily an institution that recognizes interpersonal relationships, usually sexual ones. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered mandatory before engaging in any sexual activity. If broadly defined, marriage is considered a cultural universal.

Individuals can marry for a variety of reasons, including legal, social, sexual, emotional, financial, spiritual, and religious purposes. Who they marry can be influenced by socially determined rules of incest, prescriptive marriage rules, parental choice and individual desires. In some parts of the world, arranged marriages, child marriages, polygamy and sometimes forced marriages can be practiced as cultural traditions. Conversely, such practices can be banned and punished in parts of the world out of concern for women's rights and because of international law. In developed parts of the world, there has been a general tendency to ensure equal rights in marriage for women and to legally recognize the marriages of interfaith or interracial couples and same-sex couples. These trends coincide with the broader human rights movement.

While international law and conventions recognize the need for consent to enter into marriage – namely that people cannot be forced to marry against their will – the right to divorce is not recognized; therefore, entering into a marriage against their will (if that person has consented to it) is not considered a violation of human rights, leaving the issue of divorce to the discretion of individual states. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly held that under the European Convention on Human Rights there is no right to file for divorce, nor a right to obtain the divorce if requested; in 2017, the court ruled in Babiarz v. Poland that Poland had the right to refuse a divorce because the grounds for divorce had not been met, even if the marriage in question was recognized as a marriage by both the Polish courts and the ECtHR. legal fiction involving a long-term divorce in which the man lived with another woman with whom he had an 11-year-old child.