ABSTRACT
Why is the status of being female frequently dangerous and all too often fatal? This old problem is a concern today as it was during the early modern period. The Venetian author Moderata Fonte (1555–1592) located specific dangers to women in the institution of matrimony. In her posthumously published dialogue, The Worth of Women (1600), she articulated her critique of its risks to women by turning to the realm of political ideas, especially to the concept of women’s liberty. Women were, according to Fonte, free before marriage and women remained free in the marital state. Their neglect, abuse, or murder were illegitimate, as were husbands’ claim to superiority and usurpation of women’s freedom to protest or to exit marriage as they might deem necessary.
