Women's Strategies for Managing Land in Rural England, circa 1700‐1800

Abstract

AbstractAnalysing landholding histories of sixty‐one women farming land in Puddletown, Dorset, across the eighteenth century, this article shows, first, that the scale of women's ownership and occupation of land declined over time and, second, that women were less likely to expand and more likely to retire or scale back their farming enterprises than men. These differences are accounted for by age because most women landholders were widows and, therefore, generally older than their male counterparts. Like young men, younger widows expanded their farming enterprises, while women widowed later in life were more likely to scale back their holdings, as were elderly men.