Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'm curious about the amount of sovereignty and or independence Slavic women may have had among these cultures during the pre Christian period. Any suggestions to books and or studies is also appreciated, regardless of how broad they are.
I've heard before that younger women during this time were capable of exercising more independence than they would have in the more Christianized periods to follow.
Curious to learn as much about their 'life' as possible.
We really do not know much from the pre-Christian Slavic myths, but there are some records and oral stories documented later. The best book within the Czech history was published about 30 years ago by L. Pok, named Fraganeo, which was trying to reconstruct the life of Prague and Bohemia 1000 years earlier and cover some of the rites and beliefs in an era, when Christianity became the official religion within Bohemia. The oldest Chronicles written by Cosmas of Prague before 1115 and oldest legend of Kristian written around 990 mentions that within early Bohemia, women ruled Bohemian tribes. While we do not know how much power they exercised; the rising warrior class demanded to have a man as their ruler. This legend became a part of the official dynastic legend of the first Premyslid dynasty that ruled Bohemia.
In early medieval times, St. Ludmila of Bohemia (+921) was a regent of the duchy on behalf of the grandson St. Wenceslaus (+935). It was still in time, when Christianity was still a faith of the ruling elite and warrior class was a mix of both, old and new beliefs. Obviously women in the 9th and 10th century in Bohemia had enough respect to maintain position within the society. Even within the Great Moravian Empire that disintegrated around 903-907, there is a mentioned a battle around 872 where women fought and won a battle against the Frankish invaders using clubs and bludgeons. It is hard from these sparse records to deduct how much independence women had 1000-1200 years ago.