From Andrew Roberts book NAPOLEON THE GREAT published by Allen Lane in 2014 comes an interesting marker on the road to the rights women enjoy today.

“The major criticisms levelled at the Code over the past two centuries have been that it was socially conservative, too supportive of the middle classes, of the individual and of paterfamilias, that it made wives too dependent on their husbands, and that its inheritance provisions were damaging for an agrarian economy. It was certainly true  that the Code was deeply sexist by twenty-first century standards, with a strong patriacharchal bias. Article 213 of the Civil Code stated: ‘A husband owes protection to his wife, a wife obedience to her husband.’ Grounds for divorce were restricted to adultery (and then only if the husband introduced a permanent mistress into the family household), conviction of a serious crime, and grave insults or cruelty, but it could be obtained by mutual agreement so long as the grounds were kept private. A wife could be imprisoned for two years for adultery, while a man would only be fined. A husband could not be prosecuted if he murdered his wife caught in flagrante. The Code protected married and single men from having to support an illegitimate child, or even being identified as the father. It also prevented women from making women from making legal contracts, taking part in lawsuits, serving as a witness in court or to births, deaths or marriages. Wives could not sell produce in markets without their husbands` permission, and were forbidden to give, sell or mortgage property without their husbands`written consent. Unmarried women could not be legal guardians or witness wills. In all this the Code reflects Napoleon’s profound sexism: ‘Women should not be looked upon as equals of men’ he said. ‘ They are in fact, only machines for making babies’……………………………

“Napoleon’s profound sexism emerged in his education provisions……

‘Public education almost always makes bad women flighty, coquettish and unstable,’ he told the Conseil in March 1806. ‘ Being educated together, which is so good for men, especially for teaching them to help each other and preparing them by comradeship for the battle of life, is a school of corruption for women. Men are made for the full glare of life. Women are made for the seclusion of family life and to live at home’.

As with the Code Napoleon, the lack of girls`formal education needs to be seen here too in the context of his time; at the beginning of the nineteenth century there were very few girls`schools in England or America, and none run by the state.