Few historians question the assumption that the social inferiority of women was expressed and maintained through the institution of male guardianship over them. The work of David Nicholas, a leading historian of medieval Flanders, is, for example, predicated on this supposition. Other historians, such as Philippe Godding, are more cautious; they argue that guardianship of men over women was informal, but common, social practice. This essay contends that such reasoning rests on unsubstantiated ...