The Exclusion of Women from Inheritance Rights: An Unresolved Issue?

Abstract

In Italy, the women's exclusion from the inheritance is the principle that structures the property system of the families in medieval and early modern age and the social and juridical organization of these centuries, until the XIX century. Despite its importance, the exclusion of the women has never been an autonomous historiographical issue, but it has been ignored to advantage of analysis centered on the dowry system: emphasis has been placed mainly on the property rights of the women instead of observing the marginalization of the female part of lineages respect to the family wealths. The essay addresses two issues: the way in which statutory and state laws rule women’s exclusion from intestate succession and inheritance in medieval and early modern Italy, also by establishing comparisons with other European areas; which aspects are able to raising the debates of the lawyers and jurists and the conflicts between relatives.