Testamente din Moldova veacului al XVIII-lea: voci de femei, voci de bărbați

Abstract

The present study aims to analyse some case studies and situations that may add some nuance to the status of women, and in particular to deepen our understanding of the challenges and limitations they face. The present exploration is based chiefly on testaments, but also on property and ownership deeds or other legal sources. Its main interest is in discovering women's agency in a masculine world. The first part of this text deals with women’s attitudes as reflected in last wills and testaments, as in the second part, it is analysed the boyar’s views on their wives. The main ideas of the research are about women's inheritance (practice and theory) and baștina (ancestral family patrimony), the consequences of remarriage, the similarity between women and men in writing wills, the image of women reflected in their husbands' wills. In conclusion, this analysis identifies a number of issues, both positive and negative. It can be seen that women have a certain level of education, freedom of action or, among the negative ones, in a number of cases, the status of women is influenced and depends on male conditioning.