ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the scope of cases brought against women, and how the common law constructed and accommodated them in a system designed around the male offender. Women defendants are present in smaller numbers than men in records of both ‘civil’ and ‘criminal’ cases. In ‘criminal’ matters, there were also differing levels of accusation of men and women, though the insistence on placing a male relative or husband between women and the legal system was much less strong than it was with regard to ‘civil’ cases. In addition, the existence of liability for receiving felons or giving aid to outlaws, when combined with social facts, expanded the chances of women being accused of an offence. The system was clearly, and unsurprisingly, shaped with masculine norms of offending in mind. In terms of the treatment of developments in the common law’s jurisdiction over medieval period, accounts have often not mentioned the gendered nature of changes, even when they are quite stark.
