Domestic Secrets

Women and Property in Sweden, 1600-1857

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Law, Property, History, Scandinavia
Cover of the book Domestic Secrets by Maria Ågren, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Maria Ågren ISBN: 9780807898451
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: December 1, 2009
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Maria Ågren
ISBN: 9780807898451
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: December 1, 2009
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, women's role in the Swedish economy was renegotiated and reconceptualized. Maria Agren chronicles changes in married women's property rights, revealing the story of Swedish women's property as not just a simple narrative of the erosion of legal rights, but a more complex tale of unintended consequences.

A public sphere of influence--including the wife's family and the local community--held sway over spousal property rights throughout most of the seventeenth century, Agren argues. Around 1700, a campaign to codify spousal property rights as an arcanum domesticum, or domestic secret, aimed to increase efficiency in legal decision making. New regulatory changes indeed reduced familial interference, but they also made families less likely to give land to women.

The advent of the print medium ushered property issues back into the public sphere, this time on a national scale, Agren explains. Mass politicization increased sympathy for women, and public debate popularized more progressive ideas about the economic contributions of women to marriage, leading to mid-nineteenth-century legal reforms that were more favorable to women. Agren's work enhances our understanding of how societies have conceived of women's contributions to the fundamental institutions of marriage and the family, using as an example a country with far-reaching influence during and after the Enlightenment.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, women's role in the Swedish economy was renegotiated and reconceptualized. Maria Agren chronicles changes in married women's property rights, revealing the story of Swedish women's property as not just a simple narrative of the erosion of legal rights, but a more complex tale of unintended consequences.

A public sphere of influence--including the wife's family and the local community--held sway over spousal property rights throughout most of the seventeenth century, Agren argues. Around 1700, a campaign to codify spousal property rights as an arcanum domesticum, or domestic secret, aimed to increase efficiency in legal decision making. New regulatory changes indeed reduced familial interference, but they also made families less likely to give land to women.

The advent of the print medium ushered property issues back into the public sphere, this time on a national scale, Agren explains. Mass politicization increased sympathy for women, and public debate popularized more progressive ideas about the economic contributions of women to marriage, leading to mid-nineteenth-century legal reforms that were more favorable to women. Agren's work enhances our understanding of how societies have conceived of women's contributions to the fundamental institutions of marriage and the family, using as an example a country with far-reaching influence during and after the Enlightenment.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book Women and the Historical Enterprise in America: Gender, Race and the Politics of Memory by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book A Theory of Craft by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Shakespeare's Romantic Comedies by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Civic Myths by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Rough Weather Makes Good Timber by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Kingdom to Commune by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Frederick Douglass and Herman Melville by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Frank Porter Graham and the 1950 Senate Race in North Carolina by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book The North Carolina Gazetteer, 2nd Ed by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Reproduction and Its Discontents in Mexico by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Hotel Life by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Joyce, Bakhtin, and Popular Literature by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Into the Pulpit by Maria Ågren
Cover of the book Florynce "Flo" Kennedy by Maria Ågren
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy