ABSTRACT
When it comes to the study of marriage and family during the early modern period, scholars of women and gender have substantially reconceptualized the field. For decades (if not centuries), scholars assumed that marriage was an unyielding institution controlled by male religious and political figures in public and by fathers and husbands within the home. In this scenario, marriage and family swirled around women, who had few choices and little independence in related matters. Without a doubt, both secular and religious authorities attempted to regulate marriage and to use marriage as a means to instil patriarchal ideals. However, by focusing on women, scholars have not only significantly re-evaluated the importance of marriage in early modern society, but have also complicated our understanding of the role of patriarchy in those relationships. By integrating women and gender expectations into our work, we have exposed the contrary and conflicted experiences of both men and women as cultural norms and social, political and religious expectations clashed with individual desires. Official efforts to control marriage have become less about the imposition and enforcement of a set of patriarchal and hierarchical norms upon a submissive populace and more about contestation and negotiation both within families and between family members and authorities. With women at the centre, marriage appears more fragile and gender ideologies in the family more deeply conflicted.
