The poor serf marriage grounded equality through shared nothingness and mutual labor bonds.

Evidence

Neither feudality nor the Church enfranchised woman. Rather, it was from a position of servitude that the patriarchal family moved to an authentically conjugal one. The serf and his wife owned nothing; they simply had the common use of their house, furniture, and utensils: man had no reason to want to become master of woman who owned nothing; but the bonds of work and interest that joined them raised the spouse to the rank of companion. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 210

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the reader’s foundational Continental framing — a proto-materialist economic account of reciprocity that complements and complicates Sartre’s freedom-through-nothingness. — connects to: Greater male wealth produces greater female servitude, while shared poverty equalizes the marriage bond. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 210; Marriage promises a shared refuge but leaves both spouses alone — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1277; Social marginality from family is what allowed courtesans to achieve near-equality with men — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 191 (+2 more)
• SEED: Angles toward ‘poverty as ground of equality’ — a piece on why institutions that grant privilege undermine reciprocity even in intimate bonds.

Broader Connections

• Marriage promises a shared refuge but leaves both spouses alone #complicates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1277
• Social marginality from family is what allowed courtesans to achieve near-equality with men #complicates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 191
• Marriages can misplace emphasis on trivial shared intimacy and lose substance #qualifies (0.75)
• Sharing trivial daily intimacies can crowd the weighty substance out of a marriage #qualifies (0.75) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3806