So firstly, Pride and Prejudice doesn’t take place in the Victorian era, but the Regency era. It’s not 100% certain exactly when the book is set as it was written then edited over a long period of time, but the first draft was written in 1797, about 30 years before Victoria ascended to the throne, and the book was published in 1813.

Additionally, the Bennet sisters did not inherit because women couldn’t inherit property from their father, but rather due to the specific inheritance laws on their estate. Longbourne had an entail, which governed the inheritance. At some point, an ancestor would have written a will which specified the estate would pass through the male line until there were no more men, and then it would jump back up the family tree and start looking for the right genitalia again.

It is also worth bearing in mind that with an entail, the current owner of the property did not necessarily own the property outright as we would think of it now. He was viewed more as a guardian of the land, who would keep it for the next generation. An effect of this was obviously the inability to split the property in his will, but there could also be limitations on what alterations he could make to the property. In Sense and Sensibility Mr Dashwood is unable to sell the timber from his estate, as this would devalue the property for his heir.

This isn’t necessarily reflective of how inheritance was meant to work, however, although it often did in practice. English common law stated the eldest son should inherit, and if there were no sons a property would be divided equally between the daughters. This is actually seen throughout Austen books. In Pride and Prejudice, Anne de Bough inherits property from her father, and in Emma, Emma and her sister would inherit Hartfield jointly upon their father’s death.

In the event an estate was entailed to the male line – then women could not inherit property from their husbands. Widows did have dower rights- in the event their husband predeceased them they were entitled to 1/3 of the income of his property until their death- although not the property itself. In many cases however, women would sign away their right to the dower before the marriage in exchange for some other predetermined pot of money.

In the event than an entail did not exist, it was possible for men to leave property to their wives. One such case was Lady Elizabeth Montagu. Her only child with her husband died when he was young, and without an heir (or, I am assuming, an entail) her husband was able to leave her vast amounts of property in his will.

Having said all that… I want to make clear I am not an expect in 19th century inheritance law- although I am a historian I focus on an entirely different period. Most of what I say comes from Martha Bailey’s article for the Jane Austen Society of North America - specifically the section on the economics of Marriage which I would definitely recommend reading. I also found Law, Land, and Family: Aristocratic Inheritance in England, 1300 to 1800 on google books, which has a lot of useful information in- but looks to be a somewhat drier read.