Reading Comprehension

PT23 · S4 · P2 · Q7 Medieval Women's Power

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Medievalists usually distinguished medieval public law from private law: the former was concerned with government and military affairs and the latter with the family, social status, and land transactions.

Topic

Relationship of medieval women to the law

Framework

Challenge a Position

Main Point

The distinction between public and private law is overly simplistic, because women were largely excluded from public roles but wielded a lot of political (public) power via their control of land (which was governed by private law).

Passage Map

Paragraph 1 Opens with the Position being challenged. (whenever we hear "X's usually say/think ____", the author will usually go against that point of view)

The 2nd sentence reveals the Author's Purpose. (yo, this position is overly simplistic)

The rest of the paragraph establishes the Author's Main Point. (woman had lots of political power via their control of land, which they acquired through a variety of legal means)

Paragraph 2

This paragraph just lists some of the legal means through which women got control of land. (partible inheritance, dower, jointure)

Paragrap 3

This paragraph comes back to reinforcing the power that women have. (widows > oldest son, women were landlords, widows could appear in court)

7.

With which one of the following statements about the views held by the medievalists mentioned at the beginning of the passage would the author of the passage most probably agree?

  1. The medieval role of landowner

    Wrong Emphasis: landowner

    The rebuttal to the medievalists is specifically about female landowners, not landowners in general. Female landowners are an example of "private law, relating to landowning, having a public influence", which the author uses to undermine the medievalists view that public law and private law were separate.

    2% picked this

  2. The realm of law labeled

    Unsupported Comparison: implications

    This answer is just taking to buzzwords from the sentence where medievalists is found, "Public law and private law", and fabricating an out of scope comparison. We never compared which realm had greater implications. The author is merely saying to the medievalists, "in the case of these landowning women, their private law encounters had political implications".

    6% picked this

  3. The amount of wealth controlled

    Out of Support Window: wealth

    The medievalists have only committed to one position in this passage, and it's contained in the 1st sentence. And nothing in that sentence is talking about how much wealth controlled by medieval women has been recorded. The author isn't complaining that the medievalists have failed to properly tally up their wealth. He's complaining that they have failed to recognize how female landowners would have been a tricky case of public/political legal power taking place within the "private" court system.

    9% picked this

  4. The distinction made by these

    Wrong Objection: actual cases

    The beginning of this answer sounds great, but it should say "fails to consider how female landowners of the time seemed to take private law into the public realm."

    14% picked this

  5. Correct

    The distinction made by these

    Why this is right

    We wanted this to say that the distinction "fails to consider how female landowners of the time seemed to take private law into the public realm." This is saying "failed to consider the political importance of control over land". It's an awkward fit, but it's code-language for what we want to be talking about. If medievalists had thought more about the political importance of control over land, they might have better recognized that when it came to female landowners, they would be excluded from public court but still wielding political power through private courts.

    Skill tested: Non-Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    69% picked this

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