The common law rule was that a married woman could make no contracts, except where she contracted in reference to her own separate estate. As it was the usual rule that her fortune or estate vested in the husband, her contracts as a surety were held invalid.

By rule of statute, the married woman is enabled now, to retain and control her own property and hence may make all contracts including the contract of suretyship, the same as if unmarried.4 The statutes of the different states are of course not exactly uniform, but the married woman's disability to contract has for the most part, been removed, but where the enabling act has not been passed they cannot properly become a surety or grantor.5 In Georgia and in some other states, a married woman where she binds her separate estate is forbidden to enter into a contract as surety for another, even though that other be her husband, and the debt be one, in part to obtain goods for the family.6