I was recently given a book titled Questions and Answers on Real Estate, by Robert Semenow. The highly-credentialed author offered the second edition of his book in 1955 so that real estate brokers "might avoid the pitfalls of incompetency and unethical practices" and to "provide a source of study material for the applicant qualifying for admission to the real estate fraternity." His chapter on "Agreements of Sale" lists persons who do not have full contractual capacity, among them: infants & minors, mentally incompetent persons (including insane persons, deaf and dumb persons, and drunkards), and married women. The author does explain that the contractual limitations for married women "are intended for the protection of the wife, but today, with the ever widening sphere of feminine influence in everyday affairs and business, there is no real practical justification for such limitations." Little did he know how real estate law and real estate representation would change over the next 50 years!