Wednesday 20 January 2010

Women who built ships

When Women's Hour discussed this topic today, they were not talking about the workers of World War II, but of eighteenth-century women who ran ship-building businesses. They succeeded in a highly competitive business, supplying warships during the Napoleonic Wars.

The stories of several of these women were told, including one from Deptford who inherited her husband's business in preference to their two sons. Listen to the feature here.

1 comment:

Minnie said...

Not too, too surprising. In fact it was not uncommon for mediaeval widows to run businesses - even under the guild system (which, especially after the Black Death, increasingly had to make provisions for such eventualities). Some landed widows from the same period became quite powerful, effectively ruling quite large regions (e.g. the widowed Countess of Ulster).