Gendered justice: Women in the legal systems of fourteenth century Venice (Italy)

This dissertation explores how the interplay between the allegorical and symbolic forms of Justice as female, with the patriarchal legal system, resulted in a gendered system of justice in late medieval Venice. The dissertation also illustrates that women could and did operate effectively within these legal systems, achieving justice for themselves. This project clearly shows justice as a gendered concept and construct in fourteenth century Venice. Beyond this, however, the work also indicates the broad influence and roles women had within the commercial and social life of fourteenth-century Venice as a result of these legal systems.; Using a variety of materials from the criminal, civil, and extrajudicial legal systems, and Venetian men as the comparative benchmark, the magnitude of women's relative access to and participation in these legal systems was measured. Balancing the prescriptive sources with actual case examples it is clear that in a wide variety of situations justice was not equal but gendered male or female, with results that had positive and negative consequences for women. In many cases Venetian women are protected, honored, and privileged beyond their sisters in other cities. Much of this is obviously socio-economically determined, but there still remains a clear gender bias both in general and within specific instances.; This work indicates the multifaceted opportunities, roles, and situations where justice was feminine and cooperated with her Venetian sisters. Many scholars have done work on the legal history of Venice, on crime, and on women. Missing from this wondrous tableau, however, was the work focusing on women within these systems of legal and social construction. That is the role of this work.