Benefiting from the ‘comforts of ease & afluence’: The experience of female business retirement in the diary of Sarah Florry.

This article examines the unpublished autobiography/diary of a late-eighteenth-century Birmingham-based businesswoman to explore the phenomenon of female retirement in this period. Despite plentiful recent research on the regularity of female business ownership in the eighteenth century there have b...

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Published in:Women's History Review Vol. 27; no. 5; pp. 707 - 729
Main Author: Wakelam, Alexander
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Sep2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Benefiting from the ‘comforts of ease & afluence’: The experience of female business retirement in the diary of Sarah Florry.
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        au: Wakelam, Alexander
        affil: Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
      su:
        Businesswomen
        Retired women
        Retirement
        Older women
        Single women
        Eighteenth century
        Finance
        History
        United Kingdom
      sug:
        subj:
          United Kingdom
          Businesswomen
          Retired women
          Retirement
          Older women
          Single women
          Eighteenth century
          Finance
          History
      ab: This article examines the unpublished autobiography/diary of a late-eighteenth-century Birmingham-based businesswoman to explore the phenomenon of female retirement in this period. Despite plentiful recent research on the regularity of female business ownership in the eighteenth century there have been little to no examinations of how such businesses ended, other than where they went bankrupt. Such a vacuum of scholarship has reinforced a despondent image of elderly women in this period. Without denying that old age for many could be arduous, this research shows that, where independent women were able to successfully manage finances and commercial enterprise, retirement could be enacted on their own terms. Subsequently, the enjoyment of retirement could be largely dependent upon continued socialisation to avoid boredom and loneliness, particularly in the case of unmarried women.
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