Women, Inheritance and Empowerment: French Basque Women’s Adaptation to Legal Systems across Spaces, Times and Places

Abstract

Using archival data from three different projects, this paper intends to show that in the past 250 years, Basques of southwestern France have been confronted with a succession of three different legal systems: the unequal Customs of the Ancien Re´gime, imposing single impartible inheritance by transferring all assets to first-born male or female heirs, the egalitarian laws of the Civil Code of 1804, imposing equal partible inheritance between all siblings, male and female, and finally the free-to-choose legal system of Common Law in California where Basque immigrants transferred assets to whoever they wanted. At first glance, Basque women seem to have been treated rather fairly, especially first-born daughters. Yet looking at the data more carefully, it appears that no matter the systems, Basque women have often been treated more unequally and unfairly than men, their power and status being lower than men’s. However, across times, places and spaces, the data show that these women have used their own resources and capabilities to resist inequalities, adapt to the laws and at times acquire greater powers and status.