A Four Thousand Year History of Female Entrepreneurship

Economist and author Victoria Bateman examines the intersection of gender, economics, and public policy. From Lamassi - the cloth maker who ran one of the world’s first “multinational” businesses in Bronze Age Iraq - to Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone and Madam C.J. Walker - America’s first Black female millionaires - this talk tells the story of women’s driving role in the business world over the past four millennia. Highlighting some of history’s most remarkable female entrepreneurs together with the invisible contributions of wives, mothers and daughters in family businesses - still today the mainstay of the economy - it challenges the belief that business has only ever worked in the interests of, and been shaped by, men. Speaker Bio: Dr Victoria Bateman is an economic historian and author of books including Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power (2025), which was a Financial Times Best Book of 2025, and The Sex Factor: How Women made the West Rich (2019), which was an FT Summer Read as chosen by Martin Wolf. Victoria holds the Hajnal Prize for Excellence in Economic History, has twenty years’ experience teaching economics and economic history at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Victoria was resident economic historian for BBC Radio 4’s “Understand: the economy” and has written for Bloomberg, Times Higher Education, The Guardian, CapX and The Telegraph, offering longer-form perspectives on history and the economy. In addition to her writing, Victoria works behind the scenes as a historical consultant for period dramas, advising on story lines relating to economics and economic history. WHEN: 5.30 PM – 6.30 PM: Fireside discussion and audience Q&A 6.00 - 7.00 PM: Networking and drinks reception WHERE: Provost's Drawing Room, King's College Please note that there will be photography and recording at this event. Please find our code of conduct here.