Responsa for Gittin 98:18
הניחא למאן דאמר קבלן אף על גב דלית ליה נכסי ללוה משתעבד שפיר אלא למאן דאמר אי אית ליה משתעבד אי לית ליה לא משתעבד מאי איכא למימר
[payment can be claimed even from the husband] only in poor land. — No; [R. Meir] indeed [also referred] to orphans, and there is a special reason why [in his opinion] a woman's <i>Kethubah</i> [should be collected even from their medium land], namely, to make her favourably disposed to suitors. Abaye said: Come and hear: COMPENSATION FOR DAMAGE IS PAID OUT OF [PROPERTY OF] THE BEST QUALITY, A CREDITOR OUT OF LAND OF MEDIUM QUALITY, AND A WOMAN'S <i>KETHUBAH</i> OUT OF LAND OF THE POOREST QUALITY. [Collected] from whom? Shall we say, from orphans? If so, why only the woman's <i>Kethubah</i> [from the poorest land]? Why not [all the claims of] others as well? — R. Aha b. Jacob said: We are dealing here with a case where a man became surety for compensation for damage due from his son, for his son's debt, and for his daughter-in-law's <i>Kethubah</i>. Each item then follows its own rule.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Viz., compensation for damage from the best property and debts from the second best, as they would have been by the son himself had he been alive. ');"><sup>14</sup></span>
Teshuvot Maharam
A. Since the women of our generation are loose in their manner of life, we do not permit the husband to remarry while she is forced to remain single till old age, which procedure was recommended by R. Eleazar b. Nathan, and we do not require a waiting period of twelve months till the divorce be granted. Therefore, the elders of the community should endeavor to persuade both parties to a speedy divorce without resorting to coercion of either party. Upon the granting of the divorce the woman should receive only what she actually brought in as dowry, but not the full fifty pounds of dowry written in her ketubah; for when the husband received her dowry and evaluated it at fifty pounds, though actually it was worth less, he did so because he wanted to marry her and live with her. Now that she refuses to live with him she loses the extra value placed on her dowry, the additional jointure promised her by the husband, as well as the 200 zuzin prescribed by the Talmud. Though in this country the same amount of dowry is written in the ketubah of a rich as in that of a poor bride, irrespective of the amount she actually brings in, in order not to shame the brides who bring in a small dowry, this rebellious wife is not entitled to collect the full amount of dowry written in her ketubah, since she never lived with her husband.
SOURCES: Pr. 442–443.