Looking at women, business and finance in the long nineteenth century, this book challenges our traditional understanding of 'separate spheres' - whereby men operated in the public world of work and women in the private realm of the domestic. Drawing on case studies throughout Europe, this book reveals that there was much greater diversity in women's economic experience across all social strata than has previously been understood.International contributors take a new look at women's roles in finance and investment, family-owned businesses, retailing, service activities, and the artisanal trades. They reveal that elite and middle-class women often manipulated financial resources in a highly sophisticated manner. Family-owned businesses and retail trade geared to women, such as grocery and fashion, also offered women opportunities. Throughout, the book considers the impact of industrialization on women's economic agency and examines women in the accommodation business in London, female entrepreneurs in Italy, prostitutes in Germany, family businesses in Sweden, women in publishing in Spain and much more.
'Provides a wealth of insights into the financial agency of businesswomen in the complex economic structures of nineteenth-century Europe. The compelling and lucid case studies will make an excellent contribution to the reassessment of gender roles in this period.' Kathryn Gleadle, Oxford University'Women, Business and Finance in Nineteenth-Century Europe brings together some of the best scholarly work on the history of women in business. Sophisticated, nuanced, and ever alert to the contradictory workings of gender, this wonderfully accessible collection convincingly challenges the conventional wisdom of separate spheres.' Wendy Gamber, Indiana University 'Through this collection of cutting-edge research, expertly framed by the editors, the analysis of both women's contribution to financial practice and gender relations in business in the European past is taken to a new level.' Katrina Honeyman, University of Leeds'Highly original material and well researched--providing
