ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the topical themes of family business and women in the past and present. It considers the notions of time and gender in focusing on family businesses or business families over time. The book focuses on time and place in understanding gender in businesses and women's agency in firms by combining historical and contemporary perspectives and research. It also focuses upon the stereotypical, heroic image of an entrepreneur. The book demonstrates that women have indeed been strong agents in economic history, although they have not been equally visible in historical narratives. It argues that the beginning of the nineteenth century seems to form a borderline between the medieval and early modern business communalism and a new ideology of individualism and capitalism that challenged the old social and gender order in urban business life.
