Title: Women mean business : colonial businesswomen in New Zealand /
Authors: Bishop, Catherine
Year: 2019
Subjects: Businesswomen New Zealand History; Women-owned business enterprises New Zealand History; Businesswomen; Women-owned business enterprises; New Zealand
Abstract: "From Kaitaia in Northland to Oban on Stewart Island, New Zealand's nineteenth-century towns were full of entrepreneurial women. Contrary to what we might expect, colonial women were not only wives and mothers or domestic servants. A surprising number ran their own businesses, supporting themselves and their families, sometimes in productive partnership with husbands, but in other cases compensating for a spouse's incompetence, intemperance, absence - or all three.The pages of this book overflow with the stories of hard-working milliners and dressmakers, teachers, boarding-house keepers and laundresses, colourful publicans, brothelkeepers and travelling performers, along with the odd taxidermist, bootmaker and butcher - and Australasia's first woman chemist.Then, as now, there was no 'typical' businesswoman. They were middle and working class; young and old; Māori and Pākehā; single, married, widowed and sometimes bigamists. Their businesses could be wild successes or dismal failures, lasting just a few months or a lifetime.In this fascinating and entertaining book, award-winning historian Dr Catherine Bishop showcases many of the individual businesswomen whose efforts, collectively, contributed so much to the making of urban life in New Zealand"--www.otago.ac.nz.
Contents: Don't assume it's a man: finding colonial businesswomen -- Women's place and men's responsibility -- 'This outlandish place at the end of the earth' -- One ring to bind them all: marriage and the law -- 'Good morning, Miss': the business of education -- A stitch in time: dresses and drapery -- 'Personal offices for man': beds, booze, and bodies -- 'Personal offices for women': a female economy -- The corner shop: for better or worse -- Butchers and bakers and cordial makers -- Pushing boundaries: exploiting 'accomplishments' -- Globetrotting -- Forgetting and remembering.