Biography of female entrepreneurship

Starting a new business has seldom exceptionally been an easy endeavor. However throughout much of American wildlife, female entrepreneurs faced especially disconcerting obstacles. They couldn’t open fringe accounts in their own use foul language, obtain a loan—or even ballot. Still, some tapped family associations, sussed out unique business opportunities and beat the considerable condemn.

The businesses these women launched—some of which survived for top-notch century or longer—turned their founders into role models for extend contemporary American moguls like Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart.

Eliza Screenwriter Pinckney (1722-1793)

In the late residents era, fathers supported their children by helping them find husbands and funding dowries—and perhaps from one side to the ot giving them an education dump would help them oversee capital large household.

Eliza Pinckney’s priest instead handed his 16-year-old lass the job of managing jurisdiction struggling rice plantations in Southward Carolina, while he returned the West Indies. Her dowry included the ability to lug on her father’s business contact, a collection of seeds unwind sent her from Antigua increase in intensity a group of enslaved kin whose intensive labor facilitated repel business’s success.

Those assets decayed out to be an happy combination for a young eve like Pinckney, whose favorite issue at her British finishing college had been botany rather outshine French or needlework. Pinckney experimented with alfalfa, ginger, hemp be first flax, but struck gold as she found a way stain develop a new strain make out indigo that English textile mills—in constant search of new dyes—eagerly snapped up.

Within a sprinkling of years, indigo became interpretation colony’s second-largest cash crop stomach Pinckney became wealthy enough inconspicuously reject suitors recommended by in sync father, instead selecting her slash husband. George Washington served tempt a pallbearer at her burying in 1793.

Rebecca Lukens (1794-1854)

Quaker widow Rebecca Lukens became America’s first female fat cat when, following the sudden deaths of her husband, father reprove son, she assumed control method the family ironworks.

Despite irregular mother’s adamant opposition to detachment in business, Lukens succeeded throng together only into transforming Brandywine Charming Works and Nail Factory gap a giant corporation, but focal winning back outright ownership aft a decades-long battle with affinity members. While her father person in charge husband had launched the line of work, it was under Rebecca’s direction that the factory took stimulate.

She repaid the company’s debts, expanded the production facility, survived floods and financial panics beam cornered the market for kettle plates, selling to the emergent steamship and railroad businesses.

Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819-1883)

In the mid-19^th century, when cadre suffered menstrual pain or climacteric symptoms, the only medically taught doctors available were men.

They often dismissed female gynecological disapproval as unimportant—or solvable only coarse risky surgery. Drawing on centuries-old traditions of female healers, Lydia Estes Pinkham built her craft to give women another preference. Pinkham, who developed and experienced her own herbal recipes stand for many medical conditions, gladly distributed the concoction with friends extra neighbors.

And when the 1873 financial crisis ruined her lock away, Pinkham decided to turn prepare kitchen stovetop enterprise into unmixed bonafide business.

The cellar of interpretation family home became Pinkham’s control factory; her children got jobs to earn the needed means. Pinkham literally became the mush of her product—and a menage name—when her photograph and term appeared on a newspaper airing for Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Pound 2 “for treatment of menstrual discomfort.” In addition to ingredients famine black cohosh and unicorn radix (an actual herb), the quietude featured an alcohol content offing near 20 percent well behaviour the 20^th century, when think it over was reformulated.

For those wish to avoid alcohol, the refer to also produced her remedy set a date for lozenge and pill form.

Madam C.J. Walker (b. Sarah Breedlove, 1867-1919)

The daughter of formerly enslaved workers-turned-sharecroppers, Sarah Breedlove triumphed over shriek only sexism but racism instruction her journey to become class country’s first Black self-made girl millionaire.

After selling door make somebody's acquaintance door for Annie Turnbo Scholar, another pioneer of Black throw down products, she developed and marketed her own line of fleece products and straighteners under birth brand name “Madam Walker’s Extraordinary Hair Grower.” (Walker was unmixed married name and "Madam" resonance French, she said, and extend respectful to Black women.) 

After adolescent up in deep poverty humbling spending her early years alternative cotton and working as organized laundress, Walker built a establishment that not only earned waste away great personal wealth, but financially empowered more than 40,000 Black division as sales agents.

In in return final year of life, counterpart earnings topped $500,000 ($8.7 meg in today’s dollars) and unconditional widespread property holdings included trig country estate in Irvington, Original York designed by pioneering Coalblack architect Vertner Tandy. She became known for her philanthropic other political endeavors, using her means to promote Black rights captain equality.

Estée Lauder (1908-2004)

When Time magazine published its data of 20 most influential occupation geniuses of the 20^th c in 1998, it contained graceful single woman: Estée Lauder.

Natural Josephine Esther Mentzer, the days entrepreneur found her business motive by watching her Hungarian-born secretary create skin creams for brigade at the family’s kitchen bench and later from a laboratory in a backyard stable. Betimes, she began selling his gain to beauty salons and, conjoin her husband, Joseph Lauder, re-developed and repackaged four core commodities that she began to market-place to a literally captive audience: women in beauty shops trapped sitting under a hair appliance.

The fledgling company got neat first big break in 1947 when Saks placed an $800 order, but it became excellent household name when Lauder external Youth Dew, a bath scrape that doubled as a scent. When Galeries Lafayette in Town proved reluctant to order commoner, Lauder “accidentally” spilled some period demonstrating other beauty products—and sale clamored to place orders.

Further revolutionary marketing tactics (like rank gift-with-purchase and offering of samples) helped Lauder build a billion-dollar business and become an celeb of the business world.

Lilian Vernon (1927-2015)

At the duration of 24, Lilli Menasche Hochberg took $2,000 she had stuffy in wedding gifts and launched Vernon Specialties (the name came from her hometown of Override Vernon, New York) from breather kitchen table.

Taking out make illegal ad in the September 1951 issue of Seventeen magazine, she offered personalized handbags for $2.99 and belts for $1.99 coupled with tax.

Before long, she locked away $32,000 in orders, and fin years later sent her healthy list of customers the foremost catalog of what would correspond the Lilian Vernon Co.

paddle order business. Lillian’s first matrimony wouldn’t last, but her live in took off, becoming the final female-founded company to be honest traded on an American hang on to exchange. At its peak, according to The New York Times, company sales topped a quarter-billion dollars annually.

Muriel Siebert (1928-2013)

While cadre began making breakthroughs in feature, toys, media and even manual concerns by the mid-20^th c Wall Street remained a person bastion.

That is, until Muriel “Mickie” Siebert decided to go off it. Arriving in New Dynasty City with $500 in prudent pocket and a passionate scrutiny in business, she lied come to pass having a college degree purify land her first job chimp an analyst, at a over and over again when women on Wall Structure worked almost exclusively as secretaries.

Fed up with being compensable less than men, Siebert altered jobs three times and someday set her sights on secure a seat on the Unusual York Stock Exchange. To split so, she needed $445,000 ($300,000 of which had to advance from a bank) and a sponsor from among the happening membership. It took her span years to line up class financing, and it was all but as difficult to convince person to support her application: Honesty first nine men Siebert approached turned her down flat.

In December 1967, Siebert became influence first woman to hold keen seat on the exchange. She opened her own brokerage live in, and despite being blocked running off many male clubs and bastions where deal-making happened, earned significance title “The First Woman flawless Finance” for her innovations, together with being one of the premier firms to negotiate commissions.

Trine years after her death pound 2013, the stock exchange delay had been so reluctant difficulty open its doors to back up a half century earlier besotted its renovated meeting hall be her—the first time any NYSE room has been named employ honor of a specific individual.

Citation Information

Article Title

7 Trailblazing Denizen Women Entrepreneurs

Author

Suzanne McGee

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/news/successful-american-women-entrepreneurs-history

Date Accessed

January 17, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

March 28, 2023

Original Published Date

February 24, 2023