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Female entrepreneurship: business, marriage and motherhood in England and Wales, 1851–1911

Author

Listed:
  • van Lieshout, Carry
  • Smith, Harry
  • Montebruno, Piero
  • Bennett, Robert

Abstract

This article offers a new perspective on what it meant to be a business proprietor in Victorian Britain. Based on individual census records, it provides an overview of the full population of female business proprietors in England and Wales between 1851 and 1911. These census data show that around 30% of the total business population was female, a considerably higher estimate than the current literature suggests. Female entrepreneurship was not a uniform experience. Certain demographics clustered in specific trades and within those sectors employers and own-account proprietors had strikingly different age, marital status and household profiles. A woman’s life cycle event such as marriage, motherhood and widowhood played an important role in her decision whether to work, the work available to her and the entrepreneurial choices she could make. While marriage and motherhood removed women from the labour force, they had less of an effect on their levels of entrepreneurship. Women who had young children were more entrepreneurial than those who had none, and entrepreneurship rates rose with the arrival of one child and continued to rise the more children were added to the family.

Suggested Citation

  • van Lieshout, Carry & Smith, Harry & Montebruno, Piero & Bennett, Robert, 2019. "Female entrepreneurship: business, marriage and motherhood in England and Wales, 1851–1911," MPRA Paper 101452, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:101452
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Smith, Harry & Bennett, Robert J. & van Lieshout, Carry & Montebruno, Piero, 2020. "Households and entrepreneurship in England and Wales, 1851-1911," MPRA Paper 102647, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mooij, Joke, 2025. "Influence of women in Dutch finance 1898-1940," IBF Paper Series 01-25, IBF – Institut für Bank- und Finanzgeschichte / Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt am Main.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • B54 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Feminist Economics
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • N83 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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