Bound by Freedom: Femme Sole Status and the
Reinforcement of Patriarchy in Late Medieval England
Abstract:
This project analyzes the legal and economic significance of femme sole status in late medieval England, roughly from 1300-1500, focusing on whether the status conferred onto singlewomen, widows, and married women trading sole a consequential amount of autonomy in a society where coverture put notable constraints on women’s economic and legal agency. These constraints rendered married women unable to enter contracts or litigation in their own rights. However, there were certain places which permitted married women to register as femme sole, gaining these rights back. This was for economic purposes; it did not serve as a challenge to patriarchal authority but rather as protection for commerce and male property. Femme sole status was geographically limited in scope, could cause women to experience higher vulnerability in debt litigation, and was merely one factor in the determination of legal agency a woman could receive. This project examines case law, custumals, and historiography to show that even when women used legal maneuverability to and status to participate and work around the system, that system was still shaped by male authority. Femme sole status was ultimately a way for the law to account for female participation without usurping the social order.