Mujeres, negocios y finanzas. Un enfoque histórico a través de la educación, la economía y la legislación (siglos XVI-XIX)
The International Congress Women, Business, and Finance. A Historical Approach through Education, Economy, and Legislation (16th–19th centuries) aimed to create a space for dialogue and debate on the economic role of women during this period. The economic participation of women in business and fi...
Պահպանված է:
| Ձևաչափ: | Online |
|---|---|
| Լեզու: | իսպաներեն |
| Հրապարակվել է: |
UMA Editorial (Universidad de Málaga)
2025
|
| Խորագրեր: | |
| Առցանց հասանելիություն: | https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/166473 |
| Ցուցիչներ: |
Չկան պիտակներ, Եղեք առաջինը, ով նշում է այս գրառումը!
|
| Ամփոփում: | The International Congress Women, Business, and Finance. A Historical Approach through Education, Economy, and Legislation (16th–19th centuries) aimed to create a space for dialogue and debate on the economic role of women during this period.
The economic participation of women in business and finance between the 16th and 19th centuries has traditionally been minimized or ignored in historiography. However, recent studies have shown that women played a fundamental role in various economic sectors, such as trade, the textile industry, and rural credit.
It is crucial to continue researching women’s entrepreneurial and financial activity during this period from multiple perspectives. Such studies not only allow us to recover the forgotten history of women entrepreneurs but also shed light on the strategies they used to overcome the social and legal obstacles they faced. Understanding the role of women in the economy of the 16th to 19th centuries is essential for gaining a more complete and accurate view of the economic history of that era.
To this end, four thematic axes have been proposed, each offering different perspectives that enrich our knowledge of women’s economic history. The aim has not been to pursue the traditional analysis of women’s economic activity, but rather to trace their path from their earliest training and/or contact with economic transactions and the labor market to their management of property and/or businesses.
The first axis concerns written culture and both theoretical and practical training. One of the main questions that arises is how women accessed the different types of texts available at the time and how they managed to overcome the limitations imposed by their socio-economic conditions. This involves not only analyzing the types of texts in order to counter the prevailing idea that they read only religious and moral works, but also studying the schools and workshops where they received their education.
The second axis focuses on the trades and occupations held by women during the period under study. In some of these, women worked alongside—and at times in competition with—male workers, generating both solidarities and tensions. Other occupations offered women their own working spaces, though not free from interference by authorities. In both cases, it is essential to examine women’s labor participation and the survival mechanisms behind it, in order to challenge the predominance of the bourgeois woman model in collective culture.
The third axis emphasizes women’s role in property management and the struggles that came with maintaining it, such as debts, lawsuits, and family strategies. Traditionally, it has been assumed that women—as daughters, wives, or sisters—were stripped of all authority regarding the economic and legal management of their assets. This perception may be incomplete, since although legal representation was usually entrusted to men, this did not necessarily mean that women were entirely excluded from decision-making and asset management. Studying women’s participation in property administration and the struggles it entailed is crucial to understanding their real role in society at the time, beyond stereotypes and biased portrayals in treatises and writings.
Finally, the fourth axis focuses on women’s entrepreneurial capacity and business management in the past. New businesses and income opportunities often arose out of necessity. Indeed, the driving force behind the search for labor and economic alternatives across all social classes was personal and/or family survival. Many women between the 16th and 19th centuries were forced to take full control of family businesses or lay the foundations for their own. These enterprises and economic activities—sometimes carried out outside the law—reveal autonomous women who knew how, or were compelled, to seize the opportunities that emerged.
Together, these four axes encompass diverse perspectives and topics from different regions of Spain and Europe, yet they come together as pieces of the same puzzle, advancing our understanding of women’s economic participation in the past.
Throughout the summaries presented in this volume, one can see how women trained for and engaged in business and finance during the Early Modern period. Little by little, the two major clichés that weigh on Women’s History are being disproven: their invisibility in documentary sources and their legal dependence on men. Moreover, these studies reveal how women managed to slip into those invisible lines of the economy and took advantage of the opportunities offered by the prevailing legal system to carry out their initiatives. All this research contributes to reclaiming Women’s History in active terms.
This volume brings together research conducted by specialists from diverse fields, historical periods, and regions. With it, we hope to contribute to the wider dissemination of knowledge about women’s economic and financial roles in the past, in order to dismantle stereotypes, challenge preconceived ideas, and foster stable progress in these lines of research.
We conclude this preface by thanking all the speakers and contributors for their high-quality input, thanks to which it has been possible to create this space for debate and exchange on women’s presence and role in business and finance since early times. We are also grateful to the institutions, the University of Málaga and the University of Santiago de Compostela, which provided the logistical and/or financial support needed to make this project possible.
The quality of the proposals presented would not have been possible without the scientific committee, whose help was invaluable in selecting the contributions most relevant to the theme. We must also acknowledge the generous cooperation of the blind peer reviewers, who gave their time and expertise.
Finally, we thank the reader for engaging with this volume, for moving forward with us in the scientific study of women’s economy, education, and rights. A Women’s History that can now speak thanks to the researchers who today disseminate scientifically their economic participation. |
|---|