Where Have All the Business Women Gone? Women and Business in the 20th Century

This Special Issue (SI) explores the development of female entrepreneurship throughout the twentieth century. The articles employ a mixed-methods approach to showcase various forms of female entrepreneurship, from self-employment and co-working in family businesses to innovators across underrepresented sectors, economic conditions, and institutional contexts in both Western and non-Western settings. The SI illustrates how qualitative and quantitative methods work together to provide new insights into how women pursued business opportunities in non-Western environments characterised by different paths of industrialisation, regional diversity, and business structures. Focusing on the twentieth century—which has received less attention in the history of female entrepreneurship—the articles also engage with current debates on female entrepreneurship. We offer a systematic review of existing literature, highlighting key themes, methods, and findings from prior research, along with their limitations. We then emphasise the contributions of this Special Issue in filling these gaps and suggest directions for future research.