Legal Rights of Women in History - Scandinavia

Scandinavia

The early law of the northern parts of Europe is interesting from the different ways in which it treated women. The position of women varied greatly. Before Christianity, women in Scandinavia had a relatively free and independent position. Unmarried women in general, referred to as maer and mey, were secured their right to independence: at the age of 20, a woman reached the right of legal majority and had the right to decide about her own place of residence and stand by herself in a juridical sense before the law. The one exception to her independence was the right to choose her marriage partner, which was a matter for the whole family. The idea was that the proper way of providing for a woman was by giving her a marriage portion. But, once she is married into a separate community, neither she nor her children are deemed to have any further claim on the parent group. The same rights applied to widows. The right to inherit in itself applied to both the paternal aunt, paternal niece and paternal granddaughter of the deceased, who were all named as "odalkvinna" A woman with no son, if unmarried, could also inherit the position of head of the family from her father or her brother, and was in such a case, as a Baugrygr, specifically awarded all rights normally performed by a male head of the family. The Baugrygr, however, only kept this position while unmarried, otherwise leaving the position to her spouse or son.

These liberties changed after the introductions of Christianity, and from the late 13th-century, they are no longer mentioned Women were thereafter under perpetual tutelage, whether married or unmarried. In the code of Christian V, at the end of the 17th century, it was enacted that if a woman married without the consent of her tutor he might have, if he wished, administration of her goods during her life. The provision made by the Scandinavian laws under the name of morning-gift was perhaps the parent of the modern settled property.