IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulp/sbbeta/2022-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Reassessing women’s participation in entrepreneurial activities in the nineteenth century: A review of the literature

Author

Listed:
  • Sonia Baijot
  • Charlotte Le Chapelain

Abstract

This article reviews recent literature on women entrepreneurship in the nineteenth century. We first examine the reasons why female entrepreneurship in the process of industrialization has so long remained ignored or considered at best a very marginal phenomenon. Second, this paper reviews the methods used in the recent revisionist literature in order to identify women entrepreneurs in the historical records and to assess the importance of their participation in entrepreneurial activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonia Baijot & Charlotte Le Chapelain, 2022. "Reassessing women’s participation in entrepreneurial activities in the nineteenth century: A review of the literature," Working Papers of BETA 2022-24, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2022-24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2022/2022-24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David R. Green & Alastair Owens, 2003. "Gentlewomanly capitalism? Spinsters, widows, and wealth holding in England and Wales, c. 1800–1860," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 56(3), pages 510-536, August.
    2. Jennifer Aston & Paolo Martino, 2017. "Risk, success, and failure: female entrepreneurship in late Victorian and Edwardian England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(3), pages 837-858, August.
    3. A. Owens, 2002. "Inheritance and the Life-Cycle of Family Firms in the Early Industrial Revolution," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 21-46.
    4. Mark Freeman & Robin Pearson & James Taylor, 2006. "'A doe in the city': Women shareholders in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 265-291.
    5. Khan, B. Zorina, 2016. "Invisible Women: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Family Firms in Nineteenth-Century France," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(1), pages 163-195, March.
    6. Josephine Maltby & Janette Rutterford, 2006. "'She possessed her own fortune': Women investors from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 220-253.
    7. Hannah Barker & Mina Ishizu, 2012. "Inheritance and continuity in small family businesses during the early industrial revolution," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 227-244, May.
    8. Barker, Hannah, 2006. "The Business of Women: Female Enterprise and Urban Development in Northern England 1760-1830," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199299713.
    9. Sara Horrell & Jane Humphries, 1995. "Women's labour force participation and the transition to the male-breadwinner family, 1790-1865," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 48(1), pages 89-117, February.
    10. Gamber, Wendy, 1998. "A Gendered Enterprise: Placing Nineteenth-Century Businesswomen in History," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 188-218, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonia Baijot & Charlotte Le Chapelain, 2022. "Reassessing women’s participation in entrepreneurial activities in the nineteenth century: A review of the literature," Working Papers 07-22, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    2. Sonia Baijot & Charlotte Le Chapelain, 2022. "Reassessing Women’s Participation in Entrepreneurial Activities in the Nineteenth Century: A Review of the Literature [Réévaluer la participation des femmes aux activités entrepreneuriales au dix-n," Post-Print hal-03932307, HAL.
    3. Helen Doe, 2010. "Waiting for her ship to come in? The female investor in nineteenth‐century sailing vessels," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(1), pages 85-106, February.
    4. Janette Rutterford & Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos & Carry van Lieshout, 2023. "Individual investors and social ownership structures in the UK before the 1930s: Joint holdings and trustee investment," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(2), pages 661-692, May.
    5. Acheson, Graeme G. & Campbell, Gareth & Gallagher, Áine & Turner, John D., 2018. "Independent women: Shareholders in the age of the suffragettes," QUCEH Working Paper Series 2018-09, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    6. Janette Rutterford & David R. Green & Josephine Maltby & Alastair Owens, 2011. "Who comprised the nation of shareholders? Gender and investment in Great Britain, c. 1870–1935," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(1), pages 157-187, February.
    7. Herrade Igersheim & Charlotte Le Chapelain, 2019. "Women Leaders in Industry in Nineteenth Century France: The Case of Amélie de Dietrich," Working Papers of BETA 2019-35, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    8. Graeme G. Acheson & Gareth Campbell & Áine Gallagher & John D. Turner, 2021. "Independent women: investing in British railways, 1870–1922," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(2), pages 471-495, May.
    9. Helen Paul, 2015. "Editorial: Women in economic and social history: twenty-fifth anniversary of the Women's Committee of the Economic History Society," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(2), pages 1-17, May.
    10. Alexander Wakelam, 2023. "Assessing female accountability in the long eighteenth century through debt imprisonment," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(2), pages 575-598, May.
    11. David r. Green & Alastair Owens, 2013. "Geographies of wealth: real estate and personal property ownership in England and Wales, 1870–1902," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 848-872, August.
    12. Acheson, Graeme G. & Coyle, Christopher & Jordan, David P. & Turner, John D., 2018. "Share trading activity and the rise of the rentier in the UK before 1920," QUCEH Working Paper Series 2018-04, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    13. Heinemann, Isabel & Reckendrees, Alfred, 2023. "Gendering the Company: A Critical Perspective on German Business History," MPRA Paper 119086, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. John D. Turner, 2009. "Wider share ownership?: investors in English and Welsh Bank shares in the nineteenth century1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(s1), pages 167-192, August.
    15. Herrade Igersheim & Charlotte Le Chapelain, 2019. "Measuring Success: Women Leaders in Industry in Nineteenth Century France: The Case of Amélie de Dietrich," Working Papers 10-19, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    16. James Foreman-Peck & Peng Zhou, 2021. "Fertility versus productivity: a model of growth with evolutionary equilibria," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 1073-1104, July.
    17. Timothy W. Guinnane, 2011. "The Historical Fertility Transition: A Guide for Economists," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 589-614, September.
    18. Grant Fleming & Zhangxin (Frank) Liu & David Merrett & Simon Ville, 2024. "Shining a Light: Female Investors in the Australian Gas Light Company, 1836-1940," CEH Discussion Papers 05, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5j2m1g6i7j8pnapkjvifl6e30f is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Katharina Mühlhoff, 2022. "Darwin beats malthus: evolutionary anthropology, human capital and the demographic transition," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(3), pages 575-614, September.
    21. Susan Yohn, 2006. "Crippled Capitalists: The Inscription Of Economic Dependence And The Challenge Of Female Entrepreneurship In Nineteenth-Century America," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 85-109.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Women entrepreneurship; industrialization; nineteenth century.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N83 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2022-24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bestrfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.