Women, Business, and Finance in Nineteenth-Century Europe Rethinking Separate Spheres

by Beachy, Robert; Craig, Béatrice; Owens, Alastair

• ISBN13: 9781845201852
• ISBN10: 184520185X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-21
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

Looking at women, business and finance in the 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, the authors reveal 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. We learn about 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.

Author Biography

Robert Beachy is Assistant Professor of History at Goucher College.

Beatrice Craig is Associate Professor of History at the University of Ottawa.

Alastair Owens is Lecturer in Geography at Queen Mary, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	vii
Contributors	ix
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(19)
Beatrice Craig
Robert Beachy
Alastair Owens
ACTIVITIES OF WOMEN IN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE
`Making Some Provision for the Contingencies to which their Sex is Particularly Liable': Women and Investment in Early Nineteenth-century England	20	(16)
Alastair Owens
The Silent Partners: Women, Capital and the Development of the Financial System in Nineteenth-century Sweden	36	(16)
Tom Petersson
ROLES OF WOMEN IN DIRECTION OF FAMILY BUSINESS
Where have All the Businesswomen Gone? Images and Reality in the Life of Nineteenth-century Middle-class Women in Northern France	52	(15)
Beatrice Craig
Profit and Propriety: Sophie Henschel and Gender Management in the German Locomotive Industry	67	(14)
Robert Beachy
Artisan Women and Management in Nineteenth-century	81	(15)
Barcelona Juanjo Romero-Marin
INDEPENDENT OR SELF-EMPLOYED BUSINESSWOMEN
Women and Publishing in Nineteenth-century Spain	96	(14)
Gloria Espigado
Businesswomen in Austria	110	(16)
Irene Bandhauer-Schoffmann
WOMEN IN SHOPKEEPING AND RETAIL TRADE
Belgium's Tradeswomen	126	(13)
Valerie Piette
Limited Opportunities? Female Retailing in Nineteenth-century Sweden	139	(13)
Tom Ericsson
Retailing, Respectability and the Independent Woman in Nineteenth-century London	152	(15)
Alison C. Kay
WOMEN IN SERVICES
Hidden Professions? Female `Placers' of Domestic Servants in Nineteenth-century Dutch Cities	167	(15)
Marlou Schrover
The Business of Sex: Evaluating Prostitution in the German Port City of Hamburg	182	(15)
Julia Bruggemann
Bibliography	197	(36)
Index	233