Women .Family and family Property in Pre-Industrial Northern Europe

Beatrice Moring, University of Helsinki

The economic position of women in the past was affected on the one hand, by conceptions of the patrimony, the family property, and on the other hand by the notions of male hegemony within marriage. Therefore, when discussing women and property the discussion might be focused on a woman in the position of daughter as well as in the position of wife or widow. Legal regions have not always been identical with political borders, particularly those of today, which is why one finds similarities in property and inheritance law and custom in different countries and differences between regions in individual countries. One factor is however generally present. Women were entitled to inherit paternal property. Certainly, the rights of daughters could be circumscribed at times in various places, urban and rural law could differ, but the essential principle of property descending down the generations can be detected in the background. Although the property of husband and wife could be separated in one place and amalgamated in another, a security system for widows tended to be present in one form or another, ether as inheritance or as usufruct and often a combination of both

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 Presented in Session 72. Women and Family Property