Women in Crafts and Retail

Abstract

Industrialization, urbanization and rising standards of living created a growing demand for consumer goods and new services, and women took advantage of the trend. Few became dressmakers or boarding-house keepers, contrary to what happened in the English-speaking world. Women were neither pushed down into unprofitable sectors as the nineteenth century progressed nor ghettoized into female economic enclaves serving a female clientele. Neither was small business a survival strategy for widows, as the majority of such women were either married or single. Most sold victuals, alcohol, textile and haberdashery, but so did most men. The remainder were scattered throughout the entire retail sector, although men were more likely to sell the new types of consumer goods that entered the market at the end of the century.