Question

Describe the legal positions of women in colonial society

Answer 1

Most of the women were subordinate to the command of their fathers and husbands. Many documents described episodes of aggression, closure and persecution.

In the period of the gold economy, the colonial urban centers were progressively taken over by commercial establishments that supplied the local population.  18th century documentation indicates that the number of women involved in the trade was quite significant. In the year 1776, Vila Rica's trade had seventy percent of its female-run establishments.

Some accounts reinforce another perspective by talking about the cases of women who broke with the marriage relationship and sought an autonomous life. Although morally marginalized, these women were nonetheless impressed by the strategies and actions that determined their survival in a world taken by the male figure. Often, prostitution appeared as a way of surviving exclusion and misery.