Women’s Legal Voices in Eighteenth-Century Fiction

Like many eighteenth-century legal commentators, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher William Alexander considered that English common law, here seen as protecting women, was a credit to Britain’s position as a leading civilised nation. For Alexander, a measure of “the interests and advantages of the fair sex” did not simply depend on advancements in politeness but more importantly on the laws that governed them. Alexander confidently asserted that “women in England derive their privileges and immunities from the laws of their country”, offering them a protection so extensive that “the exorbitance of that power” left men vulnerable.