Female entrepreneurs are women who organize, operate, and manage businesses, often overcoming gender-based social, financial, and cultural barriers. Female entrepreneurship has steadily increased in the United States during the 20th and 21st century, with number of female owned businesses increasing at a rate of 5% since 1997. This growth has led to the rise of wealthy self-made women such as Coco Chanel, Diane Hendricks, Meg Whitman, and Oprah Winfrey.
The history of female entrepreneurship stretches back centuries, from Eliza Lucas Pinckney's plantation management in colonial South Carolina to Rebecca Lukens's 19th-century ironworks, Madame C. J. Walker's early 20th-century beauty empire, and later pioneers such as Estée Lauder and Martha Stewart. Across time, women entrepreneurs have often faced skepticism, discriminatory property and inheritance laws, and limited access to capital and networks. Despite these barriers, women have launched ventures in industries ranging from textiles, retail, and home-based businesses to finance, technology, and manufacturing. Legislative milestones such as the Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988 in the U.S. and the rise of global support organizations have helped expand women's access to credit, markets, and government contracts.
Today, female entrepreneurship is a worldwide phenomenon, with women representing roughly one-third of all entrepreneurs globally. Patterns vary widely: participation is high in sub-Saharan Africa, where women make up over one-quarter of the entrepreneurial workforce, but significantly lower in parts of the Middle East and Asia. Women in low- and middle-income countries are more likely to pursue early-stage entrepreneurship, often out of necessity, while women in high-income countries are more likely to scale firms in professional and technical fields.
Despite steady progress, female entrepreneurs continue to face challenges including unequal access to financing, underrepresentation in STEM fields, gender stereotypes in investment decisions, and barriers to scaling firms. Programs such as microfinance initiatives, mentorship networks, and government-backed incentives aim to reduce these obstacles. Many women also pursue entrepreneurship to balance family responsibilities, achieve flexible work, or advance feminist values by creating enterprises "for women, by women." Collectively, female entrepreneurs play a crucial role in shaping economies and societies worldwide, while continuing to challenge traditional gender norms in business.
Women have become increasingly visible in creative industries such as design and lifestyle media, using digital platforms to expand entrepreneurial opportunities in interior design.
History Antiquity The earliest known well-documented businesswoman is the Sumerian Ama-e, who was involved in various trades and real estate investments (circa 2330 BC).
Another example of a well-documented businesswoman is an Assyrian businesswoman of the city of Assur named Ahaha, who operated in the 1800s BC. She is known for pursuing the resolution to an issue of financial fraud committed against her.
Funeral monuments, inscriptions and other archeological remains demonstrate that women could be active within a number of different professions and in the business world: from builders to factory workers, from market salers of anyting from beans to nails to perfumer, business agent and medical doctor.Pomeroy, Sarah B. (1979 (1975)). Goddesses, whores, wives and slaves: women in classical antiquity (5. impr.). New York: Schoken. ISBN 0805205306 The Ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which gives an unusually rich documentation of women's range of professions and business opportunities, gives a number of examples of individual Roman women with diverse professions. A number of businesswomen are noted among the citizens of Pompeii. Among them were Naevoleia Tyche, a former slave, businesswoman and investor, who became rich enough to built a magnificent grave monument; the real estate owner and landlord Julia Felix; the money lender Faustilla; the vine producer Caesia Helpis, whose vine were sold by the female vine merchant Vibia; the fish sauce seller Umbricia Fortunata; the perfumer Gavia Severa; and the very successful Eumachia, who was both the owner of a factory as well as a Priestess and the Benefactor of a professional Guild organization.The World of Pompeii. (2009). Storbritannien: Taylor & Francis. s.Longfellow, B. (2025). The Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii. USA: University of Texas Press. s.
Medieval and early modern period In Medieval Europe, the majority of business professions in the Medieval city were monopolised by guilds; associations of skilled workers who regulated trade and protected the economic interests of their members. The vast majority of guilds did not admit women as members. However, guilds customarily allowed the widows of guild members to continue their late husbands' businesses. Hence, almost all businesswomen in the Middle Ages were widows. Nevertheless, it was not uncommon to find successful businesswomen in the Medieval European cities who took over their husbands business and developed it further, such as Gertrud Morneweg, who took over the substantial banking business of her late spouse in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck in 1286,Christine Lipp: Gertrud Morneweg In: Frauen in der Lübecker Geschichte, Frauenbüro der Hansestadt Lübeck (Hrsg.), Lübeck 2005 and Jeanne la Fouacière of France, who dominated the linen trade in Paris in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
The guild system continued in Europe until the 19th century, as did the system of European businesswomen, mostly widows who inherited their late husbands' businesses. However, during the early modern period, the guild system was undermined by the emergence of new professions not included in it. Early modern Europe had many examples of rich and successful businesswomen. Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510 – 1569) was a Sephardi Jewish businesswoman who became one of the wealthiest and most influential women of Renaissance Europe, managing a business banking and trading empire, Casa Mendes-Benveniste, which operated throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. In the 18th century, the French fashion merchant Rose Bertin (1747-1813) became an internationally famous French fashion designer and is widely credited with having brought fashion and haute couture to the forefront of popular culture, being the fashion designer of Queen Marie Antoinette.
19th and 20th centuries In the 19th century, the guild system in Europe was abolished, ending the requirement that businesswomen be widows who had inherited their businesses from their late husbands, and enabling women to start businesses independently. The 19th century offers many examples of pioneering self-made businesswomen, such as the florist Madame Prévost of Paris and the perfumer Antoinette Nording of Sweden.Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013
However, despite the abolition of the guild system, the 19th century was still a problematic time period for a woman to start a business. Married women were under legal guardianship, so in practice, the new freedom to start a business was primarily open to unmarried women and widows. In parallel, there were prejudices against women being active in business during the Victorian era, as the Victorian ideal for women was that of domesticity, and not a woman involved in public life and high business, where she would have to deal with men.
During the 20th century, women were technically legally given the same rights as men to participate in business. The century offers many examples of successful businesswomen who achieved high positions in business worldwide. However, informal hindrances such as prejudice and discrimination remained a factor.
History by country
United States Pre 1900 The first female-owned business in the United States is recorded in 1739 when Eliza Lucas Pinckney took over her family's plantations in South Carolina when she was 16 years old. In the 18th and 19th centuries, women operated small businesses that they attained from inheritance or to supplement their income. In many cases, they were trying to avoid poverty or were replacing the income from the loss of a spouse. At that time, the ventures that these women undertook were not thought of as entrepreneurial. Many of them had to focus on their domestic responsibilities. For instance, with longstanding and significant barriers to educational and alternative employment opportunities, Black women were historically relegated to low-paying jobs and domestic work—particularly in the Jim Crow South. As a result, Black women of the early 20th century developed entrepreneurial niches in dressmaking, Black hair care, private home domestic work and midwifery. Lower levels of wealth, access to capital, racial discrimination and inadequate networks have been and continue to be barriers to entrepreneurship women of colour face.Walker's Legacy. (2016). "Black Women Entrepreneurs: Past and Present Conditions of Black Women's Business Ownership." Walker's Legacy.
The term entrepreneur describes individuals who have ideas for products and/or services that they turn into a viable business. Historically, this term was reserved for men."From Ideas to Independence A Century of Entrepreneurial Women." Entrepreneurs.nwhm.org. N.p., n.d. Web.
Women became more involved in the business world only when the idea of women in business became palatable to the general public; however, this does not mean that there were no female entrepreneurs until that time. In the 17th century, Dutch colonists in New Netherland (now New York City) operated under a matriarchal society in which many women inherited money and land and, through this inheritance, became business owners. One of the most successful women of this time was Margaret Hardenbrook Philipse, who was a merchant, a shipowner, and was involved in the trading of goods.Bostwick, Heleigh. "History's Top Women Entrepreneurs." LegalZoom: Online Legal Document Services: LLC, Wills, Incorporation, Divorce & More. N.p., March 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
During the mid-18th century, it was popular for women to own certain businesses like brothels, alehouses, taverns, and retail shops. Most of these businesses were not perceived as having good reputations because it was considered shameful for women to be in these positions. Society frowned upon women involved in such businesses because they detracted from the women's supposed gentle and frail nature. During the 18th and 19th centuries, more women came out from under the oppression of society's limits and began to emerge into the public eye. Despite societal disapproval, women such as Rebecca Lukens flourished. In 1825, Lukens took over the family business, Brandywine Iron Works & Nail Factory, and turned it into a profit-generating steel business.
1900-1945 In the 1900s, due to a more progressive way of thinking, and the rise of feminism, female entrepreneurs began to be a widely accepted term. Although these female entrepreneurs served mostly female consumers, they were making great strides. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, and two years later, sisters Clara and Lillian Westropp founded Women's Savings & Loan to teach women how to manage their money wisely. As society progressed, female entrepreneurs became more influential. With the boom of the textile industry and the development of the railroad and telegraph system, women such as Madame C. J. Walker took advantage of the changing times. Walker successfully marketed her hair care products and became the first African American female millionaire. Carrie Crawford Smith was the owner of an employment agency that opened in 1918, and, like Madame C. J. Walker, she sought to help women by providing them with opportunities to work.