Women and Their Money 1700-1950: Essays on Women and Finance(Routledge International Studies in Business History)

This book examines women's financial activity from the early days of the stock market in eighteenth century England and the South Sea Bubble to the mid-twentieth century. The essays demonstrate how many women managed their own finances despite legal and social restrictions and show that women were neither helpless, incompetent and risk-averse, nor were they unduly cautious and conservative. Rather, many women learnt about money and made themselves effective and engaged managers of the funds at their disposal. The essays focus on Britain, from eighteenth-century London, to the expansion of British financial markets of the nineteenth century, with comparative essays dealing with the US, Italy, Sweden and Japan. Hitherto, writing about women and money has been restricted to their management of household finances or their activities as small business women. This book examines the clear evidence of women's active engagement in financial matters, much neglected in historical literature, especially women's management of capital. .

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction Anne Laurence, Josephine Maltby, Janette Rutterford 2. Women and Finance in Eighteenth-Century England Anne Laurence 3. Women in the City: Finanical Acumen During the South Sea Bubble Ann Carlos, Karen Maguire and Larry Neal 4. Women, Banks and the Securities Market in Early Eighteenth-Century England Anne Laurence 5. Women Investors and Financial Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Germany Eve Rosenhaft 6. Accounting for Business: Financial Management in the Eighteenth Century Christine Wiskin 7. Women and Wealth: The Nineteenth Century in Great Britain Lucy A. Newton, Philip L. Cottrell, Josephine Maltby and Janette Rutterford 8. Between Madam Bubble and Kitty Lorimer: Women Investors in British and Irish Stock Companies Mark Freeman, Robin Pearson and James Taylor 9. Female Investors in the First English and Welsh Commercial Joint-Stock Banks Lucy A. Newton and Philip L. Cottrell 10. To Do the Right Thing: Gender, Wealth, Inheritance and the London Middle Class David Green 11. Women and Wealth in Fiction in the Long Nineteenth Century 1800-1914 Josephine Maltby and Janette Rutterford 12. Octavia Hill: Property Manager and Accountant Stephen Walker 13. Female Investors Within the Scottish Investment Trust Movement in the 1870s Claire Swan 14. Women Clerical Staff Employed in the U.K.-Based Army Pay Department Establishments 1914-1920 John Black 15. Women and Money: The United States Nancy Robertson and Susan M. Yohn 16. "Men Seem to Take Delight in Cheating Women": Legal Challenges Faced by Businesswomen in the United States, 1880-1920 Susan M.Yohn 17. "The Principles of Sound Banking and Financial Noblesse Oblige": Women's Departments in U.S. Banks at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Nancy Robertson 18. Women, Money and the Financial Revolution: A Gender Perspective on the Development of the Swedish Financial System, c.1860–1920 Tom Petersson 19. Women’s Wealth and Finance in Nineteenth-Century Milan Stefania Licini 20. The Transformation From "Thrifty Accountant" to "Independent Investor": The Changing Relationship of Japanese Women and Finance Under the Influence of Globalization? Naoko Komori

About the Author :
Anne Laurence is Professor of History at the Open University and author of Women in England 1500-1760: A Social History. Josephine Maltby is Professor of Accounting and Finance, University of York. Janette Rutterford is Professor of Finance at The Open University and author of Introduction to Stock Exchange Investment.