Women Who Made Money

Women partners in British Private Banks 1752-1906

by Margaret Dawes; Nesta Selwyn


Formats

Hardcover
$24.77
Softcover
$14.77
Hardcover
$24.77

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 11/18/2010

Format : Hardcover
Dimensions : 6x9
Page Count : 192
ISBN : 9781426937262
Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 6x9
Page Count : 192
ISBN : 9781426937255

About the Book

This is not a usual kind of book about banking or bankers. The authors were interested in the lives of women who joined in partnership banking. These women began working in what had been a male preserve before ideas of feminism and women's rights had suggested this as a possibility. They were feminists before feminism existed! Responsibility as partners in banks did not absolve them from their duties as wives and mothers. So we hear about domestic matters – childbirth, sickness, dinner services, furniture, watercolour painting and riding accidents. There is also a background of links with commerce and business which made the British economy so vibrant and dynamic at this formative time. The banking industry grew and developed in response to the needs of enterprise in shipping, textile manufacture, mining, engineering and general commerce. In short, these bankers created the art of multi-tasking. The banks and bankers described here came from different backgrounds within the parameters of comfortable middle-class families, rooted in local communities and enterprises. This book is full of banking history and characters and mercifully light on references to subprime lending, liquidity ratios, securitisation, or even bonuses. This is an excellent time for it.


About the Author

Margaret Dawes, MA (Oxon) co-authored Country Banks; Private provincial banks in England and Wales 1688 to 1953 published by the Chartered Institute of Financial Services, 2000. Nesta Selwyn contributed to the History of the County of Oxford for the Victoria History of the Counties of England published for the University of London Institute of Historical Research by the Oxford University Press 1953 to 2005. They were neighbours in North Oxford for 50 years and, in their youth, university education and careers for girls were still unusual which led them to take an admiring interest in these early professional women. This book is the result of their meticulous research. They were of the same determined mould: Margaret Dawes is blind and Nesta Selwyn did all the reading. Nesta died in 2009. Margaret Dawes, MA (Oxon) and Nesta Selwyn were neighbours in North Oxford for 50 years. In their youth, university education and careers for girls were still unusual which led them to take an admiring interest in these early professional women. Margaret Dawes is blind and Nesta Selwyn did all the reading. Nesta Selwyn died in 2009.