1. Objectifs

Intentions :
The author «[...] focus[es] here on the lives of women who married and became widows in Montreal, and on negotiations and renegotiations of patriarchy in their individual lives, in the laws that framed marriage and widowhood, and in the politics of the period. [The author] observe[s] this transition and these negotiations at different levels, moving across analyses at the scale of individuals, couples, families, and kin, the institutions of the city, custom, the law, and colonial politics.» (p. 2) In this book, the author «[...] seek[s] to contribute both the stories of individual women’s lives and an understanding of the different ways the negotiated and reshaped patriarchy across their lives in nineteenth-century Montreal.» (p. 20)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
L’auteure utilise plusieurs sources premières comme des journaux intimes, des archives judiciaires et notariales, des journaux, etc. De plus, elle utilise plusieurs ouvrages abordant le sujet.

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

The author «[…] weaves together the individual biographies and collective genealogies of wives and widows in nineteenth-century Montreal to offer new insights into the law, politics, demography, religion, and domestic life of the time. She shows how women from all walks of life interacted with and shaped Montreal’s culture, customs, and institutions, even as they laboured under shifting conditions of patriarchy. [...] Wife to Widow provides a rare window into the significance of marriage and widowhood during key historical moments in the history of Montreal and Quebec.» (quatrième de couverture)