Enterprising Women and Shipping in the Nineteenth Century

This article analyses female entrepreneurship in late Victorian and Edwardian England. Traditional views on female entrepreneurship in nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century England point towards a decline in the number and relevance of women as business owners in comparison to the eighteenth century, and their retreat into a ‘separate sphere’ away from the world of trade and production. Recent studies, however, have deeply challenged this view, suggesting that women still played an important role as entrepreneurs during industrialization and beyond. Nevertheless, a number of questions remain unanswered with regard to the features of female entrepreneurship during these phases of British history, and issues such as scale of operation, attitude to risk, credit structure, and managerial styles are still widely debated. Using original sources, this article provides a novel view on these issues, analysing female entrepreneurship from the perspective of bankruptcy. Analysing statistics on women's bankruptcy derived from Board of Trade reports, as well as a sample of archival cases, this article argues that overall female business owners traded in ways similar to their male counterparts in terms of business size, risk‐taking, and, eventually, success.

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“…Berg, ‘Women's property’, pp. 235–7 for the former, and Doe, Enterprising women , pp. 217–19, for the latter.…”

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confidence: 99%

Risk, success, and failure: female entrepreneurship in late Victorian and Edwardian England

Aston¹,

Martino

2017

The Economic History Review

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“…However, if railway securities are also considered low risk (although this category includes ordinary and preference shares as well as debentures) we 14 Although canal and shipping shares were not important sectors by the end of the nineteenth century, Table 7 shows women with higher average shareholdings in these sectors in the 1870s. For further discussion of women's investments in ships and canals, see, respectively, Doe (2009) and Hudson (2001). find that 30.6% of women held portfolios with only railway and UK government securities compared with 17,1% of men.…”

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confidence: 99%

Putting all their eggs in one basket? Portfolio diversification 1870–1902

Sotiropoulos

2016

Accounting History Review

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There are a number of reasons why investor portfolio characteristics are of interest. First, there is limited evidence of what individual investors actually held in their portfolios in the past, including, for example, whether there were significant differences between male and female investors. Second, investors' portfolio holdings are relevant to the debate on the 'democratisation' of investment and, third, the inform the debate on whether investors in the past made efforts to reduce portfolio risk through diversification, before the full 'scientific' approach of the early twentieth century and the Markowitz optimisation approach of the mid-twentieth century. This paper explores the portfolio choices made by a sample of 508 investors-263 men and 245 women-between 1870 and 1902. There is evidence of diversification, with the average holding of the sample being 4.6 securities. There is also evidence of increasing levels of diversification over time, of international diversification, and greater diversification by wealthy men and women. Investors in the past clearly made efforts to reduce portfolio risk before Markowitz optimisation.

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“…In early-nineteenth-century Rochester for example, Mary Ross, a warship builder, won five such contracts. 54 A number were also closely involved, like Taylor, with the Hydrographic Office. Penelope Steel assumed charge of her husband David's chart-making company on his death in 1803 and went on to publish sea charts and the Navy List.…”

Section: Early Victorian Women and The Tools Of Empire 43mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…68 Frances Barnard, the manufacturer of naval warships, named her business 'Mrs Frances Barnard and Sons'. 69 In another telling example, Elizabeth Dent won a legal dispute in 1860 to establish her rights to the business founded by her husband, which had been run by her son Frederick since the former's death in 1853. She changed the firm's name to indicate the fact.…”

Section: Marketing and Women's Occupational Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘The Riches and Treasures of Other Countries’: Women, Empire and Maritime Expertise in Early Victorian London

Gleadle¹

2013

Gender & History

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Enterprising Women and Shipping in the Nineteenth Century

Cited by 6 publications

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Risk, success, and failure: female entrepreneurship in late Victorian and Edwardian England

Risk, success, and failure: female entrepreneurship in late Victorian and Edwardian England

Putting all their eggs in one basket? Portfolio diversification 1870–1902

‘The Riches and Treasures of Other Countries’: Women, Empire and Maritime Expertise in Early Victorian London

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