California is currently one of only three states in the country — alongside Mississippi and New Mexico — that sets no minimum age at all for marriage, allowing a child of any age to be legally wed as long as a parent or guardian signs off. A bill designed to close that loophole for good just cleared a major hurdle in Sacramento, passing the state Senate on a unanimous 38-0 vote this past Wednesday.
Raping your spouse wasn’t a crime anywhere in the country until 1975, and wasn’t illegal nationwide until 1993.
It was also much harder to get a divorce. So men could rape their wives without legal repercussions and the wives couldn’t get a divorce.