Seduction, Premarital Sex, and the Law in Eighteenth-century France
Location
CSU 204
Start Date
5-4-2010 1:00 PM
End Date
5-4-2010 3:00 PM
Student's Major
History
Student's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Mentor's Name
Christopher Corley
Mentor's Department
History
Mentor's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Description
Although sources revealing single women’s lives in preindustrial Europe are scarce, paternity suits – official complaints filed by single women or their fathers against the women’s sexual partners – are one type of source eighteenth-century historians have used to shed light on some aspects of single women’s lives during the period. In an age without DNA testing, options available to women who became pregnant outside of marriage were limited, and historians have debated how much latitude and power these women had while they pursued their lawsuits. Researching premarital sex and pregnancy through paternity suits reveals at least one way women dealt with such issues in a given time and place. My research engaged this debate through an examination of several paternity suits in eighteenth-century Dijon, France. My mentor and I examined court documents from Dijon, including pregnancy declarations, initial complaints, witness depositions, and interrogations, both to understand courting rituals more generally and to assess women’s legal options once they became pregnant. My research suggests that women did have more control over their situations than some historians have claimed. I found that women used a variety of legal strategies and often won their cases. These findings will encourage historians to re-evaluate women’s relative authority, both within their families and in society at large.
Seduction, Premarital Sex, and the Law in Eighteenth-century France
CSU 204
Although sources revealing single women’s lives in preindustrial Europe are scarce, paternity suits – official complaints filed by single women or their fathers against the women’s sexual partners – are one type of source eighteenth-century historians have used to shed light on some aspects of single women’s lives during the period. In an age without DNA testing, options available to women who became pregnant outside of marriage were limited, and historians have debated how much latitude and power these women had while they pursued their lawsuits. Researching premarital sex and pregnancy through paternity suits reveals at least one way women dealt with such issues in a given time and place. My research engaged this debate through an examination of several paternity suits in eighteenth-century Dijon, France. My mentor and I examined court documents from Dijon, including pregnancy declarations, initial complaints, witness depositions, and interrogations, both to understand courting rituals more generally and to assess women’s legal options once they became pregnant. My research suggests that women did have more control over their situations than some historians have claimed. I found that women used a variety of legal strategies and often won their cases. These findings will encourage historians to re-evaluate women’s relative authority, both within their families and in society at large.
Recommended Citation
Heaney, Kelly. "Seduction, Premarital Sex, and the Law in Eighteenth-century France." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 5, 2010.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2010/oral-session-07/3
