The Low Countries, including the city of Antwerp, enjoyed many of the same egalitarian inheritance practices as France, which meant that daughters received equal shares in their parents’ estate. Among printing families, however, inheritances were generally made in favor of sons, but widows were able to make strong claims to their (printer) husband's estates, which allowed them to continue managing such businesses. Women working in this business held positions of relative power, in that they were held responsible for the publications produced by their shops, and that production was less influenced by their gender than by the publication strategies established by their husbands. One such example was the Plantin family business, which was essentially run by the female members of the family after the deaths of its two founders. 

Something that certainly helped women, like those of the Plantin family, hold onto the power of their presses was the extraordinarily high rates of literacy in the Dutch Republic. It has been estimated that 40% of Dutch women during this period could read.