Editing Women's rights (section)

==== Western Europe ====
[[File:Medieval women hunting.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Women performing tasks during the Middle Ages]]

Women's rights were protected already by the early Medieval Christian Church: one of the first formal legal provisions for the right of wives was promulgated by [[Council of Agde|council of Adge]] in 506, which in Canon XVI stipulated that if a young married man wished to be ordained, he required the consent of his wife.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QIjEVrB3b4kC&pg=PA185|title=Archaeology of Frankish Church Councils, AD 511–768|last=Halfond|first=Gregory I.|date=2010|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-9004179769|language=en}}</ref>

The English Church and culture in the Middle Ages regarded women as weak, irrational, vulnerable to temptation, and constantly needing to be kept in check.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title = Women in England in the middle ages|last = Ward|first = Jennifer|publisher = A & C Black|year = 2006|isbn = 978-1852853464|location = New York|pages = 3–4}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=August 2017}} This was reflected on the Christian culture in England through the story of [[Adam and Eve]] where Eve fell to Satan's temptations and led Adam to eat the apple. This belief was based on St. Paul,{{Cn|date=October 2024}} that the pain of childbirth was a punishment for this deed that led mankind to be banished from the Garden of Eden.<ref name=":6" /> Women's inferiority also appears in much medieval writing; for example, the 1200 AD theologian [[Jacques de Vitry]] (who was rather sympathetic to women over others) emphasized female obedience towards their men and described women as slippery, weak, untrustworthy, devious, deceitful and stubborn.<ref name=":6" /> The church also promoted the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]] as a role model for women to emulate by being innocent in her sexuality, being married to a husband and eventually becoming a mother. That was the core purpose set out both culturally and religiously across Medieval Europe.<ref name=":6" /> Rape was also seen in medieval England{{Cn|date=October 2024}} as a crime against the father or husband and a violation of their protection and guardianship of the women whom they look after in the household.<ref name=":6" /> Women's identities in the Middle Ages were also referred through their relations with men they associated with, such as "his daughter" or "so and so's wife".<ref name=":6" /> Despite all this, the Church still emphasized the importance of love and mutual counselling within marriage and prohibited any form of divorce so the wife would have someone to look after her.{{Cn|date=October 2024}}
[[File:Women activities in middle ages.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|Royal women's activities in the Middle Ages]]
In overall Europe during the Middle Ages, women were inferior to men in legal status.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title = Women's Roles in the Middle Ages|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4SL2X3uHEAC|publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group|date = 1 January 2007|isbn = 9780313336355|first = Sandy|last = Bardsley}}</ref> Throughout medieval Europe, women were pressured to not attend courts and leave all legal business affairs to their husbands. In the legal system, women were regarded as the property of men so any threat or injury to them was the duty of their male guardians.<ref name=":7" />

In Irish law, women were forbidden to act as witnesses in courts.<ref name=":7" /> In Welsh law, women's testimony could be accepted towards other women but not against men, but Welsh laws, specifically [[Cyfraith Hywel|The Laws of Hywel Dda]], also reflected accountability for men to pay child maintenance for children born out of wedlock, which empowered women to claim rightful payment.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Women, Linen and Gender in the Cyfraith Hywel Dda – Laidlaw Scholarships|url=https://laidlawscholarships.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2019/06/26/women-linen-and-gender-in-the-cyfraith-hywel-dda/|access-date=2020-10-09|website=laidlawscholarships.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk|archive-date=22 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922190110/https://laidlawscholarships.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2019/06/26/women-linen-and-gender-in-the-cyfraith-hywel-dda/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In France, women's testimony had to corroborate with other accounts or it would not be accepted.<ref name=":7" /> Although women were expected to not attend courts,{{Cn|date=October 2024}} this however was not always true. Sometimes, regardless of expectations, women did participate and attend court cases and court meetings. But women could not act as justices in courts, be attorneys or members of a jury, or accuse another person of a felony unless it was the murder of her husband.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Women in Medieval Western European Culture|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k09yF2Ub-pYC&q=women+in+middle+ages+law&pg=PA113|publisher = Routledge|date = 12 November 2012|isbn = 9781136522031|first = Linda E.|last = Mitchell}}</ref> For the most part, the best thing a woman could do in medieval courts was to observe the legal proceedings taking place.{{Cn|date=October 2024}}

Swedish law protected women from the authority of their husbands by transferring the authority to their male relatives.<ref name="Beattie">{{Cite book|title = Married Women and the Law in Premodern Northwest Europe|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=36uGH4HNUWoC|publisher = Boydell Press|date = 1 January 2013|isbn = 9781843838333|first1 = Cordelia|last1 = Beattie|first2 = Matthew Frank|last2 = Stevens}}</ref> A wife's property and land also could not be taken by the husband without her family's consent but neither could the wife.<ref name="Beattie"/> This meant a woman could not transfer her property to her husband without her family or kinsman's consent either. In Swedish law, a woman would also only get half that of her brother in inheritance.<ref name="Beattie"/> Despite these legal issues, Sweden was largely ahead and much superior in its treatment towards women than most European countries.{{Cn|date=October 2024}}

Medieval marriages among the elites were arranged in a way that would meet the interests of the family as a whole.<ref name=":7" /> Theoretically a woman needed to consent before a marriage took place and the Church encouraged this consent to be expressed in present tense and not future.<ref name=":7" /> Marriage could also take place anywhere and the minimum age for girls was 12, while it was 14 for boys.<ref name=":7" />