Abstract
In this volume, we have started a global conversation. In coming together to discuss their individual perspectives on female business ownership in its many different forms, contributors have made the scholarly connections necessary to establish new global understandings of female entrepreneurship in the long nineteenth century. Here, we reflect on the central themes emerging from these chapters, evaluate the new historiographical landscape and identify future avenues of research.
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Notes
- 1.
See Maja Gustafsson, Mapping Millennials’ Living Standards, Resolution Foundation, https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2019/08/Mapping-millennials-living-standards.pdf [accessed 30.08.19] and Sarah O’Connor, ‘Millennials poorer than previous generations, data show’ Financial Times, 23 February 2018, https://www.ft.com/content/81343d9e-187b-11e8-9e9c-25c814761640, [accessed 30.08.19].
- 2.
‘When women succeed, nations are more safe, more secure, and more prosperous’, President Barack Obama, March 8, 2013: see The Council On Women And Girls: Entrepreneurship And Innovation Accomplishments report via https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/women [accessed 30.08.19]. In April 2018, UK Prime Minister Theresa May launched a £7 million programme called ‘SheTrades’ to support female entrepreneurs across the Commonwealth, https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/social-affairs/discrimination/news/94394/theresa-may-launches-commonwealth-female [accessed 30.08.19]; see also http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures for data on the importance of female economic activity in developing countries [accessed 30.08.19].
- 3.
Evidence from the World Bank shows that across the world, women are hampered by restricted access to finance, technology, knowledge and networks. Perhaps most significantly however, the law also restricts them. A report from 2017 states, ‘married women cannot perform the following functions in the same way as married men in many economies: inherit property (35 economies), travel outside the home (17 economies), obtain a national ID card (10 economies), sign a contract (1 economy), open a bank account (1 economy), and register a business (3 economies). Globally, only 47 of 189 economies have laws prohibiting discrimination in access to credit on the basis of gender’. Women’s Entrepreneurship Facility: Establishment of a Financial Intermediary Fund (June 2017), http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/969911498960845681/pdf/Women-Entrepreneurship-Facility-06082017.pdf, [accessed 02.09.19].
Similarly, an open letter from The Telegraph’s ‘Women Mean Business’ campaign states: ‘just 9% of funding for UK start-ups goes to women-run businesses in the UK annually…Men are 86% more likely to be funded by venture capital and 56% more likely to secure angel investment than women’, J Johnson, “Shocking lack of female entrepreneurs” as it emerges just a fifth of British businesses are run by a woman’, The Telegraph (21 September 2018), https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/21/government-launches-review-barriers-female-entrepreneurship, [accessed 02.09.19].
- 4.
Some of these businesses, many of which are in the shady world of multilevel marketing schemes, are sold as a way that women can apparently simultaneously gain the financial benefits of a high income, to be ‘successful’ while also spending ‘quality time’ with their children; in short, they can have it all. The recruitment pages of companies such as Juice Plus, Herbalife and Avon emphasise the low start-up costs and scalability of the business model, offering the new ‘owner’ the opportunity to work the hours that they want to so as to either earn ‘some extra cash or to expand into creating a new career’, https://www.become-a-rep.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwkqPrBRA3EiwAKdtwk2cRIxT3bGG6l4mSUpZc5QnNQx5wvBtNfDNc91qeZc6RQkhZHcJWkRoCNxgQAvD_BwE [accessed 30.08.19]. This is likely to appeal to women who have left the work place to have a family and who have to combine any paid work with childcare and the primary earner’s working hours. The Younique recruitment page makes the link between its style of business and mothers with young children even more explicit by using an illustration of a mother ‘working’ on her laptop while lying back on a sofa with a small child on her knee. If only it were that easy… https://www.youniqueproducts.com/business/presenterinfo#.XWkdgS5KjZ4 [accessed 30.08.19].
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Aston, J., Bishop, C. (2020). Conclusion: Expanding the Horizon. In: Aston, J., Bishop, C. (eds) Female Entrepreneurs in the Long Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33412-3_19
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