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Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia) Paperback – December 11, 1995

by Cornelia Hughes Dayton (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0807845615 ISBN-10: 0807845612 Edition: 3^rd

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Women before the Bar is the first study to investigate changing patterns of women's participation in early American courts across a broad range of legal actions--including proceedings related to debt, divorce, illicit sex, rape, and slander. Weaving the stories of individual women together with systematic analysis of gendered litigation patterns, Cornelia Dayton argues that women's relation to the courtroom scene in early New England shifted from one of integration in the mid-seventeenth century to one of marginality by the eve of the Revolution.

Using the court records of New Haven, which originally had the most Puritan-dominated legal regime of all the colonies, Dayton argues that Puritanism's insistence on godly behavior and communal modes of disputing initially created unusual opportunities for women's voices to be heard within the legal system. But women's presence in the courts declined significantly over time as Puritan beliefs lost their status as the organizing principles of society, as legal practice began to adhere more closely to English patriarchal models, as the economy became commercialized, and as middle-class families developed an ethic of privacy. By demonstrating that the early eighteenth century was a crucial locus of change in law, economy, and gender ideology, Dayton's findings argue for a reconceptualization of women's status in colonial New England and for a new periodization of women's history.

Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia)

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Product Details

Series: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 3 edition (December 11, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807845612
ISBN-13: 978-0807845615
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #965,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Editorial Reviews

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"Women Before the Bar" is already indispensable in my women's history courses.Linda K. Kerber, author of "Toward an Intellectual History of Women"

Book Description

"Finely crafted. . . . Tackles questions that have long engaged feminist historians and other scholars interested in women and the law."--Signs

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Unique study with great argument

By "nuclearmse" on March 12, 2001

Format: Paperback

Dayton's book argues that, in terms of courtroom cases, women in colonial Connecticut fared better under Puritan legal ideas than later when the laws became more like those in England. She takes the reader through five kinds of cases that involved women to show the changes in the law over time. Her style is easy to read, and she uses anecdotes about specific cases to illustrate her points. A very unique study, unlike any that I have encountered in colonial American history.

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