Women, Aragon Law and the practice. Some historical notes

Abstract

This article is partially based on the research carried out by the author during the elaboration of her Ph.D., entitled «Women pioneers of Law in Aragón, 1910-1975»1. This piece addresses the role that women played in the legal profession throughout history, placing the geographical focus on the Spanish region of Aragon. The article develops the hypothesis that women in Aragon played a virtually non-existent role in the legal profession until the late twentieth century. This was also the situation in the whole country, due to the firmly-established patriarchal system. Despite the traditional perception arguing that Aragonese law gave a privileged treatment to women in comparison with other legal systems, this article shows that gender prerogatives in Aragon were not in fact so abundant, and that Aragonese women could not hold legal positions until well into the same twentieth century. As a matter of example, the Vidal Mayor itself shows that, similarly to what was established by the Partidas of Alfonso X the Wise referred to Castile and other territories, the late medieval Aragonese doctrine of Roman-canonical influence also expressly sought to prohibit the exercise of the legal profession to women. As a consequence of this kind of historical-legal circumstance, a female forerunner in the legal field has not been detected in Aragon until 1929, the year in which an extraordinary woman entered for the first time both in the Aragonese legal-practical Academy and in the Bar Association of Zaragoza. However, only since 1946 the few female professional accesses would entail an effective legal practice.