An occupation for a lady: Businesswomen in Brisbane arcades, 1880s–1920s

Recently, Australian historians have increasingly uncovered the lives and accomplishments of nineteenth and early twentieth‐century businesswomen, who ran their establishments in a time when legal strictures restricting their financial autonomy could disguise or suggest a lack of involvement in such roles. These scholars also resist historiographies that emphasise men as the minds and money behind business ventures and demonstrate women were regularly driving forces behind commercial endeavours, both large and small, not just in Australasia but across the world. This article examines businesswomen at a specific type of site in nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century Brisbane—the arcade. While often represented purely as customers, women also comprised a significant number of entrepreneurs who owned, ran and invested in businesses located in arcades. They ranged from milliners and dressmakers to tearoom proprietors and palmists, from nurses' agents to owners of the arcades themselves. Tracing the lives of three such women in Brisbane's Grand Arcade during the 1880s to 1920s, this article explores their lives and business interests—before, during and after their time operating there. It utilises biography as a method to explore business history and how life events influenced women's entrepreneurship in the city in this period. While each of these women came from very different backgrounds and had diverse future trajectories, locating them at a single site highlights some of the key issues for women entrepreneurs, not only in Brisbane but across Australasia and the globe.