Women and Family Property (Routledge Research in Gender and History)

This book examines property legislation and the actual position of women in receiving, holding and passing on family property as daughters, wives and as widows throughout history.

Traditionally the prevailing view has been that women have been disadvantaged in the distribution of property and therefore less interesting as objects of study. This volume challenges this view and explores the securing of property for families or for individuals through transfers in the shape of dowries, marriage contracts, wills and other arrangements, as well as how women used and distributed the property they were holding.The scope of the volume is both urban and rural, analysing the position of women in relation to family property through contributions from a wide geographic area. The chapters investigate the situation in southern and northern Europe, across the Atlantic and Africa throughout the 18th to the 20th century.

This volume will be of value to academics, undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars interested in gender and history and social history.

Beatrice Moring joined the Cambridge Group for the History of Population in 1996. In 2007 she became associate professor in social and economic history at the University of Helsinki after some years at the University of Essex. Her research interests are women and work, household and economy, inheritance and social stratification. She had many publications, including Widows in European Economy and Society 1600-1920 ( 2017) and Female Migrants, partner choice and socio-economic destiny (2021).