European laws of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries generally forbade women from owning property, handling money, signing contracts, or holding public office. Why was this?

Question

a) Legal codes of the time treated women as perpetual children who had to be cared for by their fathers, husbands, and eventually sons.
b) The restrictions on women were not unusual, since the majority of men were forbidden these things as well.
Consider This: How did Sofonisba’s father arrange for her to receive training? See 2.6: Narrative: Wondrous Sofonisba.
c) The Church condemned women who engaged in such practices.
Consider This: How did Sofonisba’s father arrange for her to receive training? See 2.6: Narrative: Wondrous Sofonisba.
d) Women were actually able to do all these things as long as specially convened town councils approved it.
Consider This: How did Sofonisba’s father arrange for her to receive training? See 2.6: Narrative: Wondrous Sofonisba.

Answer 1

a) Legal codes of the time treated women as perpetual children who had to be cared for by their fathers, husbands, and eventually sons.