This paper aims to contribute to the study of female social mobility through marriage, by presenting a study case for north-eastern Catalonia, during the second half of the 18th century. This is a region where there was a strong system of impartible inheritance based on male primogeniture, so that it was women who moved into the families of the heirs, while paying a dowry accordingly. It is precisely the combination of the value of the dowry with the occupation of the bride's and groom's family that permits to better understand the dynamics of social mobility that brides experienced at the time of marriage. The results obtained suggest that male primogeniture pushed many women towards downward social mobility, despite certain mechanisms to mitigate it.
University of Girona, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0002-5382-5263
Chapter Title
Female social mobility in an impartible inheritance society at the end of the pre-industrial era (north-eastern Catalonia, 1750-1825)
Authors
Josep Mas-Ferrer
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0667-9.26
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
La mobilità sociale nelle società preindustriali: tendenze, cause ed effetti (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Social mobility in pre-industrial societies: tendencies, causes and effects (13th-18th centuries)
Editors
Angela Orlandi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
612
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0667-9
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0666-2
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0667-9
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0668-6
Series Title
Datini Studies in Economic History
Series ISSN
2975-1241
Series E-ISSN
2975-1195