Customer Reviews

Early modern women and their property rights. - By: , 16 Oct 2001
It has been a long recognised fact that life for womenin the early modern period consisted of little more than enforced domestic slavery & legal incapacitation. It is necessary only to read of one of the most famous tenets of the common law at this time to invoke an image of oppressed & unfairly treated womanhood, for coverture - the legal loss of a wife's identity - meant that a woman effectively became her husband's property upon marriage. Parallel to such a law ran the prevailing ideology that 'woman' was a naturally inferior being to be treated on a par with idiots & convicts & who was therfore, rightfully denied legal & civil rights. This perception of women as victims is repudiated to some extent by Erickson, on the grounds that it is not a complete appraisal of the status of women of this period. By treading beyond the well-worn path of legal restrictions & social prescriptions that are traditionally associated with women from the late sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries, Erickson aims to show thatin truth, practice often differed from theory.
This she does by studying how ordinary women managed property; how they inherited & maintained property, & how they disposed of it. This involves the examination of official records,in particular, probate records, which refer to the provision of wills, & of marriage settlements. Documents of both kinds demonstrate that women, despite the importance of primogeniture - the passing of wealth through the male line - often inherited property & that they could negotiate prenuptial settlementsin order to maintain their interests after marriage. Erickson acknowledges that the different stages of a woman's life had different effects upon her legal status; for instance, an ordinary unmarried woman had basically the same legal rights as a man of her own social standing, whilst widowhood often meant financial stability & the reinstatement of legal powers lostin marriage. Thus,in many cases, women were able to manage affairs relating to their economic well-being, a state that must have effected to some extent, the social relations between men & women. Whilst many women were of course, dependent upon the good will of their husbands & fathers, the conclusions that Erickson draws from her sources support her view that womenin general, maintained a social importance that belied their legal & civil status.
Women & Propertyin Early Modern England is a set reading for the Open University's MAin History, & won the Ellen McArthur Prize for economic history upon its publication. It could easily have been a dry tome, with its economics slant & reliance upon such dessicated sources as Chancery & Equity court records, but for Erickson's extremely readable style of writing. Antonia Fraser described it as 'extremely stimulating,' & although there was no roomin this work to dilate upon the issue, I found Erickson's conclusion that the legal status of women actually declinedin the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries, a quite fascinating basis for future study. This book was also described as an 'impressive study' by Germaine Greer, & judging by the vast amount of end notes & the size of the bibliography, it is clear that Erickson knows her sources & that she has put a great deal of time, effort & expertisein presenting this book to students of history, economics & women's studies.