Introducing A Hidden History of Women in the Industrial Revolution
And a mind-blowing stat 🤯 for your Thursday that proves why this period still matters.
Hey, lovely human 👋
Let’s start with a little summary. Last week, I talked to you about my new book and how it has changed and developed over the past few years. I also mentioned that I’ve finished putting together the introduction to this new book (which I’m calling ‘A Hidden History of Women in the Industrial Revolution’).
One of the reasons why I’m doing this is to show that this period still matters. Only last month, the results of the Scott Trust’s decade-long research showed how The Guardian newspaper’s founders had all profited from transatlantic slavery, prompting a new restorative justice campaign. Only a few months before, the Trevelyan family made a public apology in Grenada for their role in enslavement. Since the coronation last week, calls have intensified for the British monarchy to acknowledge its involvement in enslavement.
When we’re looking at women as one huge group, they profited from enslavement and were also exploited and harmed by it – and that has to be acknowledged and explored. Too often, we have an image of men as the great captains of industry in the late 18th and 19th centuries (many of whom were heavily invested in enslavement) but that wasn’t always the case.
And this might blow your mind a bit …
According to the Gender Index, only 17.3% of active companies in the UK are female-led in 2023.
Now, get this …
In 1901, between 25% and 30% of all businesses in the UK were run by women.
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
That’s according to research done by the University of Cambridge as part of its ‘Drivers of Entrepreneurship’ Project.
This project looked at the age and marital status of women business owners, and a few things might surprise you. For a start, business ownership was not limited to married women. In the dressmaking trade, for example, single women between the ages of 15 and 24 owned almost 5000 businesses in 1901. This same group operated almost 2000 teaching businesses and nearly 3000 laundries.
So, a couple of things really stand out to me.
Firstly, the idea that industrial women weren’t entrepreneurial is clearly wrong and not grounded in historical reality. (And what has/hasn’t changed for women in 2023, I wonder?)
Secondly, how can we start to tell the stories of different groups of women in the context of industry and enslavement?
I don’t know the answers to either of these questions (yet – and maybe I never will?!) but I’ll leave you with this quote from Elsa Barkley Brown, which has stuck with me ever since I read it:
“We need to recognise not only differences but also the relational nature of those differences. Middle-class white women's lives are not just different from working-class white, Black, and Latina women's lives. It is important to recognise that middle-class women live the lives they do precisely because working-class women live the lives they do.”
Until next time,
Kaye x