Incorporating Women

the long version

The only book on the market to bring together business and women's history, Incorporating Women: A History of Women and Business in the United States by award-winning author Angel Kwolek-Folland, is an engaging and unique survey of women in business that begins with 17th century Native American fur traders and ends with the producer of the film Top Gun. Along the way, the reader is introduced to some of the women - famous, infamous, and forgotten - who have engaged in business throughout U.S. history. This narrative challenges our expectations about both the history of women and the history of business as it focuses on the changing legal and social climate for women's economic activities and traces the expansion of opportunities as well as the persistent problems that continue to face women in the business world. Kwolek-Folland has chosen two organizational themes: women's business experiences in light of a diversity of economic relations, and the importance of the legal and social conditions of women to their business opportunities. Drawing on cutting-edge scholarship in the "new business history," this volume covers everything from firms and markets, to small and large businesses, to workers and entrepreneurs. The extensive research from both primary and secondary sources, incorporates the latest scholarship on women and business and is presented in clear, jargon-free prose that makes this introduction to women's business history accessible to scholars, students, and everyone interested in the role of American women in business throughout history.