5 - Gender and the Prosecution of Adultery in Geneva, 1550–1700

Summary

Historians have characterized the prosecution of adultery in early modern Geneva in two different ways that, at first glance, seem to be at odds with one another. Some argue that women were prosecuted more vigorously than men due to a traditional patriarchal understanding of marriage that deemed a woman’s sexual loyalty to be paramount; others maintain that Geneva was a special case, distinct from most of early modern Europe, because men were prosecuted as intensively and as violently for adultery as women.  Some scholars go so far as to argue that Geneva was a “paradis des femmes” because husbands were also held accountable for their sexual wanderings. This chapter demonstrates, however, that Geneva was far more typical in its prosecution of sex crimes than most Reformation historians admit.  For a brief period, the male lovers of adulterous wives were prosecuted aggressively in Geneva.  But if we enlarge our temporal focus to encompass a larger period, and consider the gender and marital status of those punished, it becomes clear that, even in Geneva and even during the Reformation, errant wives were the primary target of adultery prosecutions.