We investigate the impact of liberalism the dominant intellectual current during this period on married women’s property rights in nineteenth-century Latin America. Following independence, new constitutions throughout the region incorporated notions of individual freedom, guarantees to private property, and representative democracy. By the middle of the century, most countries boasted liberal and conservative parties. While the latter were generally associated with traditionalism or continuity with the colonial past, liberal parties tended to champion an agenda that included free trade, free land and labor markets, and a reduction in the economic and political power of the Catholic Church. To what extent did liberal notions of individual freedom and private property affect the family and specifically, the property rights of married women? Furthermore, why did Mexico and Central America go much further than South America in reforming the inherited marital and inheritance regimes? Finally, did these liberal r forms contribute to gender-progressive change?