On The Position Changes Of Women In Roman Marriage And Family Law

Women problem has always been not only one of the hottest social problems of general interest for centuries, but also a vital problem that must be paid close attention to and carefully dealt with by any nation that wants to carry out reformations and achieve progress. Among the problems, women' s legal position is an important criterion to judge the civilization degree of a society. Making a general survey of Roman history, the women' s position in marriage and family law changed a lot.The essay discusses and analyzes the position changes and characters of women in Roman marriage and family law. Basing on the absorption of the previous research achievements done by the predecessors and after my own careful research, I completed this essay with my personal new viewpoints.Through the investigation of the characters of the Roman national institution and family systems, the essay probes into two problems: one is the historical background of the legislation of the Roman marriage and family law, the other is the position changes of women in it. And the features of the latter have been fully analyzed at last.In early Rome, men were occupying the dominating place in both national institution and family systems, which determines that in Roman marriage family affairs must be subordinated to the needs of man, while women must attach themselves to men. So women were low in status in both marriage and family relationships.After the war of Bunic, Rome entered an age of turning: politics and economy experienced significant changes: men'sauthority in national institution and family systems has been greatly weakened. All this effectively promoted the government' s considerations and policies about women problems in legislation, as a result of which women' s legal status has been significantly improved and enhanced. So in marriage matters women had gained certain decision-making powers;in family relations, their personal attachment to man had gradually been slackening and at the same time they gained certain relatively independent property rights.From the laws and regulations of Roman marriage and family , we could see the following four characteristics of women' s positions changes: First, men' s and women' s positions are reaching equality. Second, women are being liberated from the patriarchal families, through which they started to experience the changes from identity to contract, and the change from family departmentalism to individual departmentalism. Third, women have gained independent personality, which has propelled the transformation of Roman marriage system from husband-and -wife integration to husband-and-wife individualism. At last, women have gained certain autonomy in making decisions about marriage.