Women and Business since 1500: Invisible Presences in Europe and North America? [Paperback]

This volume surveys the role women have played in various types of business as owners, co-owners and decision-making managers in European and North American societies since the sixteenth century. Drawing on up-to-date scholarship, it identifies the economic, social, legal and cultural factors that have facilitated or restricted women's participation in business. It pays particular attention to the ways in which gender norms, and their evolution, shaped not only those women's experience of business, but the ways they were perceived by contemporaries, documented in sources and, partly as a consequence, viewed by historians.This volume surveys the role women have played in various types of business as owners, co-owners and decision-making managers in European and North American societies since the sixteenth century. Drawing on up-to-date scholarship, it identifies the economic, social, legal and cultural factors that have facilitated or restricted women's participation in business. It pays particular attention to the ways in which gender norms, and their evolution, shaped not only those women's experience of business, but the ways they were perceived by contemporaries, documented in sources and, partly as a consequence, viewed by historians.Introduction.- PART I: THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (16TH TO 18TH CENTURY) 1. Context.- 2. Common People: the Crafts.- 3. Common People  Retailers, Street Sellers, Market Stall Holders, Shopkeepers.- 4. Interregional and International Trade and Banking.- 5. Printers and Manufacturers.- 6. The North American (British and French) Colonies.- Conclusion to Part One.- PART II: THE MODERN PERIOD (19TH TO 21ST CENTURY) 7. Context.- 8. More of the Same: Lower Middle Class Women in the English Speaking World.- 9. Women and Small Business in Continental Europe.-&nbsl3¦