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Related Resources • Index to Etexts on Women's History • Women in Judaism • Goddesses & Myths: Asia

Note that this entry is a product of its time, and should be read in that context. Footnotes have been omitted to make the text easier to follow. Also note that scanning and editing may have introduced a few errors into the transcription. Because of these errors, if you need to use this information in an academic paper, please consult the original, available at many libraries.

This continues the entry under "Women" in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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In the Mosaic law divorce was a privilege of the husband only, the vow of a woman might be disallowed by her father or husband, and daughters could inherit only in the absence of sons, and then they must marry in their tribe.4 The guilt or innocence of a wife accused of adultery might be tried by the ordeal of the bitter water. Besides these instances, which illustrate the subordination of women, there was much legislation dealing with, inter alia, offences against chastity, and marriage of a man with a captive heathen woman or with a purchased slave. So far from second marriages being restrained, as they were by Christian legislation, it was the duty of a childless widow to marry her deceased husband's brother. In India subjection was a cardinal principle. "Day and night must women be held by their protectors in a state of dependence," says Manu. The rule of inheritance was agnatic, that is, descent traced through males to the exclusion of females. The gradual growth of [ ], or property of a woman given by the husband before or after marriage, or by the wife's family, may have led to the suttee, for both the family of the widow and the Brahmans had an interest in getting the life estate of a woman out of the way. Women in Hindu law had only limited rights of inheritance, and were disqualified as witnesses.

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More of this article: General | Mosaic Law, Ancient India | Roman Law | Christian Law  | Northern Europe Law | English Law | Husband and Wife | Criminal Law | Education | Professions | Nursing and Medicine | Government and Politics | Women Practicing Law | Women as Clergy | Women's Rights Agitation | Woman Suffrage | Woman Suffrage 1865-1906 | Woman Suffrage 1906-1910 | Woman Suffrage Societies | Woman Suffrage New Zealand and Australia | Woman Suffrage America | Woman Suffrage Europe | Woman Suffrage International | Sources

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Part of a collection of etexts on women's history produced by Jone Johnson Lewis. Editing and formatting © 1999-2003 Jone Johnson Lewis.