Netta Green presented her current project, which explores the status of daughters and sisters in post-revolutionary France. In contrast to the restrictive provisions imposed on married women by the Napoleonic Civil Code, Netta demonstrates how unmarried women, particularly in their roles as daughters within the family, gained new economic opportunities during this period afforded by the egalitarian inheritance laws. By focusing on young unmarried women, her project challenges existing historical narratives on gender dynamics in nineteenth-century France, which predominantly emphasize women's exclusion from political, commercial, and legal realms. Netta shows that in matters of property ownership, unmarried women gained new rights and legal protections. Her investigation into the evolving social status of unmarried daughters draws from a diverse array of sources, including the Napoleonic Civil Code, bureaucratic records monitoring young women, as well as literary works, and personal correspondences.
Picture:
Source: Illustrations de Le Père Goriot: scènes de la vie Parisienne by Honoré de Balzac
Illustrator: Albert Lynch, 1885, Paris.
National Library of France