Women as property owners in towns of the eastern part of Galicia towards the end of the 18th century

The article discusses the issue of estate ownership of women in towns located in the five easternmost cyrkuls of Galicia, i.e. the Brzeżany, Stanisławów, Ternopil, Zaleszczyki and Złoczów cyrkuls. The issue has been studied on the basis of an analysis of entries in the Josephinian land cadastre carried out within the years 1785–1788. That basis allowed to conclude that in 101 towns of the studied area 2072 women were estate property owners. The number can be further divided into two groups: hereditary owners of towns or part of towns and owners of single properties, who were of a subordinate status. The latter group included 2044 women, which was 6,12% of the overall estate property owners. The indicator of women participation in the group of property owners varied depending on a town and ranged between 0 to 12,94%. Women owning town estates were mostly widows. Their households most often did not exceed the area of a yoke and consisted of a house or a cottage and a small garden. This suggests that they obtained their main income from typically urban professions.