Reassessing Women’s Participation in Entrepreneurial Activities in the Nineteenth Century: A Review of the Literature

This article reviews recent literature on women entrepreneurship in the nineteenth century. We first examine the reasons why female entrepreneurship in the process of industrialization has so long remained ignored or considered at best a very marginal phenomenon. Second, this paper reviews the methods used in the recent revisionist literature in order to identify women entrepreneurs in the historical records and to assess the importance of their participation in entrepreneurial activities. Key-words: Women entrepreneurship, industrialization, nineteenth century. JEL Classification: L26, N13, N83, 014