WOMEN’S LEGAL STATUS IN THE SOCIETY OF THE POLISH-LITHUANIAN COMMONWEALTH AND THE UKRAINIAN COSSACK STATE (SECOND HALF OF THE XVI-XVIII CENTURIES)”
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Дата
2019
Автори
Назва журналу
Номер ISSN
Назва тому
Видавець
europska-veda
Анотація
Unlike the rest of Western Europe, in Ukraine the social
status of women depended not on the social status of her husband,
but on her own property status. The women’s legal status was
regulated by the Lithuanian Statutes, which criminal and civil
rulings enshrined the principle of equal rights for men and women. By ensuring the property
independence of women and their right to inherit the land, the Lithuanian Statute thus legalized
wives’ equal legal status with their husbands.
It is also noteworthy that divorces in Ukraine at the time of XVI-XVIII centuries was considered a
mundane procedure, in contrast to the rest of medieval Europe, and it took place not only in cases
permitted by the church but also because of the lack of consent in married life and even because of
the loss of trust and love or chronic illness of one of the spouses. The divorce process took place by
means of a mutual “protest” with the determination of the material conditions and rights of the
children. After all the formalities related to divorce were done, man and woman both were able to
enter new marriages.
All of that and many more proves that the legal status of women in the society of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth and the Ukrainian Cossack state was quite high and was regulated by the
norms fixed by the secular and church legislation and the customary law of the Ukrainian people.
Опис
The historical sources of the XVI-XVII centuries studied by us prove that Ukrainian women
of this period were considerably freer to express themselves and had significant legal rights as the
citizens of the state.