Women Who Meant Business

^{Image: The New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage War Relief Work Room,1914 (courtesy of Elizabeth Crawford)}

Women Who Meant Business is an ongoing project to celebrate a fuller and richer picture of Britain’s past and help women working today and tomorrow. Find out more about me and what inspired this project.

At its heart is a FT-She 100 of pioneering business women born in the Victorian age. Most of them started working before some women got the vote in 1918. Barely any of them are names we recognise today. Through their stories we get a more complete picture of women in commerce in Britain from the 1870s onwards, the sectors they worked in and the impact they had, from inspiring the Cenotaph to inventing the catwalk show and even influencing the supermarket sandwich selection. There are now 84 stories to read. You can find out about accountants and architects, stockbrokers and shareholder activists, women who built houses, programmed computers, trained racehorses and even travelled to Australia and found gold. New additions are made regularly.

Subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on instagram to find out more about pioneering business women and their networks, as well as relevant exhibitions, talks, books and events.

You can take action to shape history, too.

Spread the word. The more visible these women become, the more likely it is they will get the attention they deserve in documentaries, museum displays, text books, public spaces and corporate histories. Since I started this project, seven women have been added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and two have been added to the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. So share the stories you like – you never know what might happen.

See what’s out there. Museums and galleries often have displays on local women – have a look at their website to find out what’s on. English Heritage has recently unveiled a number of blue plaques honouring women and many towns have started their own initiatives – walks, memorials or just lists of influential women.

Start your own research. Who are the women who contributed to your sector or business? Are they getting the credit they deserved? What were your great-grandmother or great-aunt getting up to? If you dig, you will find your own bits of gold. Have a look at the reading list and other resources. And if there is someone you think should be featured here, let me know.

Happy exploring!