Their Fathers' Daughters: Women's Social Identities in Fifteenth-century Florence

Based on an analysis of how the identities of women were recorded in legal and familial documents, this article argues that women's social identities were primarily and permanently linked to that of their natal families, particularly to their fathers. Given the frequent shifts in women's living positions, marital status, and legal guardianship, women's ties to their natal families have often been seen as tenuous. However, identifying a woman through her patriline was common practice and made practical sense in that it identified the individual woman in a permanent way and reflected the enduring ties between a women and her patriline.