BIO

Hello, my name is Heesu Seo! I am from Tallahassee and am a 1st-year studying history. I hope to eventually go to grad school and become a professor.

Women, Wealth and Property: Montpellier, 1760s-1780s

Abstract

The role of women in Ancien Régime France is generally assumed to be one relegated to servitude, unable to participate in broader society without the permission of a male guardian or husband.

However, Roman law governed the cultural practices of southern France, which allowed for more liberal policies regarding female ownership of land compared to the customary law that dominated Parisian gender politics. This project aims to dispel claims that women exercised little to no socio political rights in Ancien Régime France. Instead, through the analysis of tax records and property sales in Languedoc between 1760-1790, the extent of female impact in the region will be quantified, demonstrating the vast rights women exercised.

This project pulled a random sample of property sales in Languedoc from a larger pool of records, and calculated the average profits women versus men were making in property sales. Another facet of the project analyzed tax registers from the city of Montpellier from 1789-90. To find the prevalence of women who paid taxes, every woman on the register was recorded, along with her social and marital status and amount of tax paid.

Overall, our research revealed that the average sum value of property sales between men to women versus women to men was around 200 livres greater for the latter. On the tax register, we discovered around 19% of the names listed on the roll were women, composed of a variety of social and marital statuses.

Keywords: Women, Gender, France, Law, Equality