In The Measure of Woman, Kelleher analyzes the relationship between women and the law in the late medieval Crown of Aragon. The author's aims are double. On the one hand she tells the story of women in a particular kingdom of medieval Iberia, while disclaiming their exceptionality and situating them in the broader context of women in Europe and the Mediterranean. On the other hand, however, she builds an “argument about the nature of the relationship between women, gender, and legal culture” (2). The period was one characterized by important legal developments all over Western Europe: the reintroduction of Roman law, along with a more efficient study of canon law, and the diffusion of the ideals of these two bodies of law, known as ius commune. Simultaneously, the various European monarchies created their own legal codes, using Roman law as a model, with the intention of legitimizing and centralizing authority, and overwriting local custom. For example, in the Crown of Aragon, the king, as head of the royal Audiencia—the highest court in the realms—was the ultimate arbiter of secular justice.

Kelleher demonstrates how the courts “measured women” in function of their relationship to men (unmarried, married, widow), their sexual respectability (good or bad) and their conformity with medieval ideals of gender (for example, the natural subordination of women to men, women's weakness and frivolity). Thus, this study confronts both the gendered assumptions inherent in the legal codes, and those of regular people, as they come out in the record cases. Two types of sources are used in this well-researched study: local, regional and ius commune legal codes; and court records, mostly drawn from the rich collections of the Archive of the Crown of Aragon. The documentary material, mostly unedited, refers to cases in which women participated in a significant way, either as plaintiffs, defendants, or witnesses. In the author's words, these materials can help us to measure and understand the existing gap “between the gendered ideals expounded in the law codes on the one hand and the lived experience of women as represented in litigation on the other, tending to show women either subverting the law or using it to their own advantage” (9).

The book consists of an introduction, four chapters, and a short conclusion. Chapter One, “Drawing Boundaries: Women in the Legal Landscape in the Age of Jaume II,” serves to frame the topic and the discussion to follow by laying out the legal situation in the late medieval Crown of Aragon. The second chapter, “The Power to Hold: Women and Property,” looks at how women operated within the relational categories created for them in the legal codes in the context of claims made on the property of others and their right to control their own properties. Chapter Three, “Crimes of Passion: Sexual Transgression and the Legal Taxonomy of Women,” deals with legal cases relating to women's illicit sexual activities. These were closely connected both to the idea of reputation and fame and medieval conventions of sexuality and morality – assumptions that were associated with the body and sexual behavior in the case of women. These feature unmarried women and widows accused of fornication and prostitution, and married women and widows accused of adultery. Finally, Chapter Four, “Gender and Violence,” explores cases of gendered violence and examines medieval standards of what constituted “reasonable” and “unreasonable” violence between men and women. The court cases presented deal with spousal abuse, rape, and uxoricide. These themes connect to those of the previous chapter, in that the protection of law was extended to women who were considered “respectable,” and this reinforced established ideas of “worthy” versus “unworthy” women.

In conclusion, in The Measure of Woman, Kelleher draws a vivid picture of mostly, but not exclusively, Christian women at court confronting the complexities of the legal contemporary system. They do not appear as passive victims, but show real agency and initiative working within the boundaries of the written law. This led to a double and paradoxical effect that constitutes the most relevant conclusion of this interesting and valuable study: although the documentary evidence shows women's agency and their ability to develop sophisticated litigation strategies to their own advantage, while doing so, they tended to reinforce the models and stereotypes created for them by the patriarchal legal and social system. Altogether, Kelleher's book builds a very convincing argument for women playing a significant part in the formation of the gendered legal culture that became so important in defining their own lives. As such, this is a most welcome and relevant book, particularly valuable to historians interested in gender and the law, not only in the Crown of Aragon and Iberia, but in Europe and the Mediterranean.