Plural of dower; money, property, or possessions that a bride brings to her marriage, or that are given to her husband's family.
From Old French 'doaire,' from Latin 'dos' (gift). Dowries were crucial to medieval and early modern marriage arrangements, treating women as economic transactions.
Dowries created perverse incentives—marriages were arranged based on money rather than compatibility, and daughters became financial burdens to families. The practice shows how economics warps human relationships.
Dowry practice historically treated women as property transfers between male-headed households. The economic system embedded assumptions that women's value was transactional and that their reproductive/domestic capacity was exchangeable goods.
Use neutrally when discussing historical systems, but note the gendered power dynamics when appropriate. Modern discussions should acknowledge this practice as economically and socially harmful to women's autonomy.
["bridal wealth","gift exchange","spousal property agreement"]
Women's economic historians have documented how dowry systems concentrated wealth in male hands and restricted women's inheritance rights; feminist economics now centers women's agency in property and marriage decisions.
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