Women in Law and Lawmaking in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Europe

Eva Schandevyl is Assistant Professor of modern history at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. She is the editor of ’In haar recht? Vrouwe Justitia feministisch bekeken’ (VUB Press, 2009) and author of ’Tussen revolutie en conformisme. Het engagement en de netwerken van linkse intellectuelen in België 1918-1956’ (VUB Press, 2011). Her articles on the history of law and gender, social and intellectual history, and migration have appeared in ’European Review of History’, ’National Identities and Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire’. She is presently working on a comparative project that examines the feminisation of justice in the twentieth century.

Contents: An introduction to women in law and law making in 19th and 20th century Europe, Eva Schandevyl. Part I History of Women in the Legal Profession: From philanthropists to juvenile judges: women dealing with juvenile delinquency. International debates and local practices in Belgium (1890-1960), Aurore François and Christine Machiels; Feminist lawyers and legal reform in modern France, 1900-1946, Sara L. Kimble; Women’s admission to the legal profession in Germany between 1900 and 1933, Marion Röwekamp. Part II Gender Constructions and their Impact on Jurisprudence: Arbitrating class and gender: working-class women and labour arbitration in Tourcoing, 1848-1894, Mathieu Brûlé; Bending the code civil: married women, their capacity to engage in contracts and the partnership between spouses (Belgium, 1804-c.1865), Dave De ruysscher; Women and law in 19th century Greece: the impact of the modern state, Evdoxios Doxiadis; Women’s rights in the late Russian Empire: the paradoxes of the legislative basis in the family sphere, Nadezda Belyakova and Taisiya Belyakova. Part III Gendered Legal Cultures in Global Perspective: Women lawyers and women’s equality movements at the turn of the 20th century: paradoxical relationships?, Mary Jane Mossman; Legal cultures in transition: the role of Italian jurist women, Maria Rita Bartolomei. Index.