From the mid-12th century onward, across Europe, new laws increasingly restricted women’s ability to acquire and manage wealth. This marked the beginning of a long process that, on the eve of the early modern period, resulted in a dramatic contraction of women’s economic opportunities. The relevance of this issue is undeniable: not only has female agency long been central to gender studies, but the consequences of these historical shifts continue to shape society today. Yet the origins and mechanisms of these developments remain far from fully understood.

The period under investigation corresponds to a formative phase in European history, characterised by profound economic, social, and political transformations, evolving family structures, and complex legal innovations. Why, then, did such restrictive laws emerge precisely at this moment? How were the reductions in women’s economic rights connected to broader late medieval dynamics? And to what extent did female economic rights differ across regions and contexts?

PatriFem aims to answer these crucial questions through an innovative, large-scale study encompassing three regions with markedly diverse legal traditions and socio-economic and political settings: Italy, France, and the German-speaking areas. The project will gather and analyse extensive datasets drawn from archives across Europe, using two main bodies of sources: statutory texts (to trace changes in property and patrimonial rights) and private documents such as notarial records (to observe how laws were interpreted, implemented, or even anticipated in practice). This methodology—replicable across different periods and regions—will provide a solid foundation for future research. The resulting data will feed into the creation of an interactive digital atlas: the first attempt to map, both chronologically and geographically, the evolution of women’s property and patrimonial rights in law and practice across Europe over five centuries.