The rights of women in the North are a mixed, unequal thing and heavily effected by pragmatism and necessity. Generally a woman’s status is decided by the status of her closest living male relative — be that husband, father, son or brother. This status would decide how much they would get in terms of legal rights. The higher up the social structure the more rights women had, though generally still with caveats. However some things are more general or a little more complex than simply hierarchical.

For example, women were not considered the property of their father or husband but they also can not enter contracts without a male co-signer and can only give testimony in limited circumstances. Women also have a say in who they marry and cannot be made to marry someone they don’t want to. This naturally gets more complicated in real life than it is on paper. Even while her status was tied to that of her closest male kin, a woman was still able to improve her own social status via hard work, education and skill. Women who gained a social status higher than her male kin is then able to act independently according to that high status.

Property and jobs

Men and women maintain separate property even after marriage and women can have businesses of their own and keep the profits of it under their own power. Usually their businesses are related to the work that is already considered women’s work like weaving. While rare, women are able to become bards, doctors, religious figures, etc.

Women can inherit property and titles, however they tend to inherit less property than any male siblings/co-inheritors and usually they only inherit a title when there are no viable male options. Still, the positioning of a woman as the head of the house is not quite as unheard of as it would be down south, though there will still be plenty of pushback and attempts to marry her for it. After her death, her children do not necessarily immediately inherit her property and title. If she was made the lady of a household because at the time there were no males higher/available but now after her death there are, those men have a very strong case to inherit the title and associated property.

Women’s personal property can not be taken from them by others legally outside of punishments.

Education

While not exactly encouraged (and in fact maybe a bit discouraged) women do have access to high education and apprenticeship. Again this all comes back to the Northern sense of pragmatism. Why lament the lack of a son if you have a perfectly good daughter who’s able to learn the family business? There is a real mindset of not letting things go to waste which includes people. This allows women access to at least some of the same opportunities as men to educate themselves though not many will go through with it.

Related to this, the North thinks it’s a bit odd that no women can be maesters since it seems like a waste of those who are well suited to the role. They find ways around this ban by ordering maesters to basically give a girl well suited for the job the same education they had or having them apprentice with a bard who studied at the citadel if they want her to have that specific skillset and not just that of a bard. Generally the North sees jobs like maester as well suited for women since they’re generally not physically demanding and put women in a support position.

Self Defense and Combat

The further you go to the north and west of the kingdom, into the lands more likely to be raided by Wildings or Ironborn the more freedoms and responsibilities women tend to have. This comes from the pragmatic need to have women be able to defend themselves and their homes from these raiders who might try to steal them and their valuables, and so that they can efficiently run things and make important decisions at home without being questioned or undermined.

Most women of the west and north know basic self defense even if they do not choose to pursue it as a skill past that. Female warriors are still very rare they’re not quite as bizarre there as they would be considered in the South. At least if she’s from those heavily raided areas like bear island, the more eastern or southern the woman the more odd it seems.

Marriage

One of the areas where the North is much different than other places in Westeros and which can lead to political issues between them and other kingdoms is in marriage.

A Northern women is able to leave her husband with more ease than anywhere else in the Seven kingdoms save maybe Dorne. This is another ancient First Men practice which, while there are differences, they still share to this day with the Wildlings. There are two ways a divorce can be had, the first one is that there is a day once a year where either one or both parties decide to get a divorce with no consequence and the two parties separate. The second is that one party comes before the local lord or bard and says they want a divorce for one of the accepted reasons on a list — infertility, abuse, bad money management etc. the lord or bard then goes through the process of verifying the claims and disentangling the assets of the couple in keeping with the results of those findings. Ex. A woman divorcing her husband because he’s a drunk who’s never around is likely going to get much more out of the shared assets than he is since she was the more respectable party.

Women also tend to have more of a say in who they marry and ostensibly cannot be forced into a marriage against their will, the act of doing so making the whole thing immediately invalid. How this all works out in reality is more grey and while a woman might technically agree to a marriage on her own power it’s not impossible there might have been som help to get there.

This idea of divorce of course becomes trickier and more just an option in theory with the nobility, as so many of their marriages are first and foremost political. The usual solution in those cases is separation, with the two parties simply living apart but remaining married in the eyes of the law to maintain the alliance. However should the husband prove to be say, violent/cruel/deeply mistreating her in some fashion, it is possible for her to petition the current Lord Stark for a divorce and/or protection. Naturally men are able to also petition for divorce but that’s not really as impressive.

An alternative to the couple living separately would be for the woman or man to marry someone else in the other family that they might find more agreeable to maintain the alliance. And naturally basically all bets are off if say, a couple had sworn eternal fealty and love before a weirwood. Then you’re on your own and no divorce law can save you. This is why the North tends to use very specific language for marriage vows when that marriage is before a weirwood (which is most of them). It is said that forcing people into taking marriage vows before a heart tree will lead to calamity for all involved.

There has also traditionally been a history of polygamy in the North though that has completely fallen out of favor below the Wall now. These marriages related strongly to politics and alliance making. A king or lord would have their primary wife and then some amount of other wives who usually had some kind of contract or promise related to them being there. This now really only crops up in stories, histories and the more archaic laws.

Their conception of marriage is part of the reason why there have been so few political marriages between the North and southern powers. Their ideas of marriage are so radically different it can make negotiating one very difficult. Many southerners mistrust marriage alliances with the North since they feel the marriage can be dissolved too easily. Northerners also dislike the southern concept of being basically trapped married to someone you hate who’s totally useless for your whole life.

Social Roles

Women also tend to be seen as equal and important figures when it comes to social or household matters. Women are traditionally seen as the ones in charge of the hearth and home and because of that have a right to be consulted by their husband on all matters as his decisions could impact the wellbeing of her homestead. Women have a serious hand in the winter preparations and keeping the peace during them as they’re the primary producers of fabric and are already tasked with keeping households in line. The word of a lady said in the name of her husband when he is away is law and can only be overturned by him or whoever he has publicly made his proxy in his absence.

Generally, lord and lady will work in tandem to ensure stores are full and buildings sound for the winter but when the lords eyes must turn to other matters the lady will stick closely to the winter preparation and relay important developments to her husband. Women are also the first defense against social issues deepening during the winter when everyone is stuck together. Their job is to monitor everything and try to spot the first signs of discontent or bad feelings and find a way to resolve them before it has to be brought up the chain to the lady and then finally, her husband.

This means at times these women and especially the lady of house will have to act as investigators if it’s possible a crime might have been committed. If they discern it has then the lady of the house will instead take all the evidence gathered and present it to her husband for him to handle the matter himself. A woman who has gained for herself a high social standing like a bard or doctor has more social sway than the average woman and enjoys certain liberties.