The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship explores the
relationship between home, household headship and enterprise in
Victorian London. It examines the notions of duty, honor and
suitability in how women's ventures are represented by themselves
and others and engages in a comparison of the interpretation of
historical female entrepreneurship by contemporaries and historians
in the UK, Europe and America. It argues that just as women in
business have often been hidden by men, they have often also been
hidden by the ?home? and the conceptualization of separate spheres
of public and private agency and of ?the? entrepreneur. Drawing on
contextual evidence from 1747 to 1880, including fire insurance
records, directories, trade cards, newspapers, memoirs, the census
and extensive record linkage, this study concentrates on the early
to mid-Victorian period when ideals about gender roles and
appropriate work for women were vigorously debated.
Alison Kay offers new insight into the motivations of the
Victorian women who opted to pursue enterprises of their own. By
engaging in empirical comparisons with men's business, it also
reveals similarities and differences with the small to medium sized
ventures of male business proprietors. The link between home and
enterprise is then further excavated by detailed record linkage,
revealing the households and domestic circumstances and
responsibilities of female proprietors. Using both discourse and
data to connect enterprise, proprietor and household, The
Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship provides a multi-dimensional
picture of the Victorian female proprietor and moves beyond the
stereotypes. It argues that active business did not exclude women,
although careful representation was vital and this has obscured the
similarities of their businesses with those of many male business
proprietors.
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