Sparkly………
I’m in agreement with you. The USA is not a theocracy and wives are not chattel belonging to husbands.
In 1970 my sister was married immediately after graduating college and just before starting to teach. My brother and I each gave her $1,000 and told her this is your money, it is not your husband’s property. Soon you’ll be earning a living, but when the children come and only he is working you still need to have some independent money. We never want you in the situation of having to ask your husband for money to buy him a birthday gift. If this ever runs out and you have not been able tgo replenish it come back and tell us.
About 10 years later when she had both a sickly husband and a deaf child, she told us she needed some extra personal funds. We were more than happy to help.
When our eldest daughter was married erev Pesach our sons also gave her a private cash stash. It was larger than my sister got, as it is 45 years later.
No woman should have to be so controlled by a man that she lives in fear of embarrassment that the husband would tell a merchant that my wife was not authorized to buy from you and demand the money back.