The Restoration Document is the template used for a woman to voluntarily surrender her legal power of attorney to a male guardian or trustee.

Western Europe

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Eastern Europe

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United States of America

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Canada

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Oceania

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Eurasia

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East Asia — Japan 日本 / South Korea 대한민국

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It is a template, and not to be taken as legal advice without a legal representative. Otherwise it may be used for ceremonial purposes. Please read our legal disclaimer.

Our ancestors wished no woman to conduct even private business without the authorisation of a guardian; they wished women to be under the authority of parents, brothers, or husbands. Yet we—heaven help us—now permit them even to take part in public affairs and to intrude into the Forum, public meetings and electoral assemblies. What else are they now doing throughout the streets and at the crossroads but commending the tribunes’ proposal to the plebs and declaring that the law ought to be repealed?

Give the reins to an uncontrolled nature and an untamed creature, and then expect the women themselves to set a limit to their licence; unless you set it, this is the least of the restraints imposed upon them by custom or law which women resent having to endure. They desire freedom in all things—or rather licence, if we wish to speak truthfully. For what will they not attempt if they carry this point?

Consider all the laws concerning women by which your ancestors bound their licence and subjected them to men. Though constrained by all of them, you can scarcely keep them in check. What then? If you allow them to pluck away and wrench off each restraint one by one, and finally to be placed on an equality with men, do you think they will be tolerable to you? The moment they begin to be your equals, they will be your superiors.

Cato the Elder, speech against repealing the lex Oppia; Livy, Ab urbe condita 34.2.11–14; 34.3.1–2; original translation [download]