Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality Volume 5 Issue 2 Article 6 Spring 5-9-2017 Empowering Sister Wives: Why the Relationships Between Wives in Polygynous Marriages Deserve Legal Recognition Stephanie Halsted Indiana University Maurer School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijlse Part of the Law Commons Publication Citation Stephanie Halsted, Empowering Sister Wives: Why the Relationships Between Wives in Polygynous Marriages Deserve Legal Recognition, 5 Ind. J.L. & Soc. Equality 355 (2017). This Student Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Empowering Sister Wives: Why the Relationships Between Wives in Polygynous Marriages Deserve Legal Recognition Stephanie Halsted* INTRODUCTION The legal arguments disfavoring the legalization of polygamous marriages often invoke the notion of an assumed negative impact that polygynous marriages have on the “victims” of the institution: the wives and children.1 The women in such marriages are framed as powerless chumps who are brainwashed into a patriarchal cult of female subjugation where they function no more than as homemaking robots for their promiscuous husbands.2 While there has been debate in courtrooms and legal scholarship over the legal recognition