Complex sentence: The act's full significance was that, for the first time, it allowed women to legally keep their own earnings and inherit property, but it also put a legal duty on women to maintain their children alongside their husbands.
Split into simpler sentences: The act's full significance was that, for the first time, it allowed women to legally keep their own earnings and inherit property. It also put a legal duty on women to maintain their children alongside their husbands.