Roman women "sui iuris" (“of their own power,” and not under the authority of any "pater familias") possessed the legal right to own enslaved people as "instrumenta", though jurists decided on a case-by-case basis whether to extend the status of "pater familias" to them in their capacity as slaveowners. In general, however, the status of "pater familias" could not be fully extended to women "sui iuris" because Roman law recognized the authority that "pater familias" wielded over members of the immediate family as strictly gendered, i.e., male. Nonetheless, historians and legal scholars have often overlooked this exception to the rule that allowed some women "sui iuris" (usually wealthy and of the upper socioeconomic stratum of society) to attain legal recognition as "pater familias" through their ownership of enslaved persons.