Two scholars working on the late medieval Europe are seeking additional papers for a panel proposal to the 2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. The panel engages debates about women’s investments in the economies of the preindustrial world. In almost all these economies, there were patriarchal legal and social limitations on women’s inheritance rights, use of dowry and dower property, and access to education, apprenticeships, professions, and credit, supported by discourses. However, women with capital to invest sometimes negotiated around those limitations. How did women use inheritance or other income for entrepreneurial investment? How did local customs enable women space to operate small businesses in certain economic niches?
The organizers are interested in contrasting the late medieval Low Countries with a wide range of world regions during any time period. They are interpreting investment very broadly: credit markets, property markets, state and private annuities, or stock markets, farm sales, leases, or sharecropping arrangements, moneylending or pawnbroking, or marketselling. The panel also welcomes papers that examine the discourses surrounding women investors.
If you are interested in joining this panel, please send contact information and a 250-word abstract to Shennan Hutton at slhutton@ucdavis.edu by Dec. 10, 2015.