Women entrepreneurs in Southern Italy (1800-1900): Evidence from a Large Historical Database

Women’s entrepreneurship is a recent field in business history dating back to the 1990s (Kwolek-Folland 1994, 1998; Gamber 1997; Yeager 1999). At the end of the 2010s, studies on female entrepreneurship remained marginal in the discipline (Mills & Williams 2024). Almost all studies highlighted cases of "exceptional" businesswomen or were based on small datasets of women belonging to the entrepreneurial elite (Rinaldi & Tagliazucchi 2021). Recent scholarship has begun to move beyond these limitations applying new methodologies (e.g., cluster analysis and network analysis) to gender issues (e.g., the 2024 “Business History”’s special issue Women in Corporate Networks). Another novelty is the use of large datasets that allow for a much broader mapping of female entrepreneurship (Van Lieshout et al. 2020; Rubio-Mondejar & Garrues-Irurzun 2024; Gabbuti & Licini 2025). In line with this new approach, we examine the role of women entrepreneurs in Southern Italy – a traditionally patriarchal and patrilocal society (Rondinelli et al. 2025) – across different periods, sectors, and firm’s legal forms. We draw on the IFESMez database (Imprese, Finanza, Economia e Società nel Mezzogiorno). The primary source for this database is Mercantile Court archival funds (since 1883, Civil Court) available at the Naples State Archive. IFESmez includes data on 3,570 firms and 28,000 individuals active in Naples and its province between 1800 and 1913. Firms are classified by NACE sectors and roles have been harmonized enabling a detailed mapping of a diversified entrepreneurial landscape. We use network analysis to identify the most central women in the business network. We then profile women entrepreneurs by performing a tandem analysis, i.e. a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) on the qualitative variables describing women followed by a Hierarchical Clustering on the MCA factors. The results of the quantitative analysis are supported by prosopographical reconstructions that enable to find previously unknown ways of co-creation.