Men, Women, and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth, and Investment 1850-1930

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed significant developments in the structure, organization, and expansion of financial markets and opportunities for investment in Britain and its empire. But very little is known about how men and women engaged with these markets and with new opportunities for money-making. In what ways did the composition of personal fortunes alter in response to these developments? How did individuals make use of new financial opportunities to further their own priorities and ensure their families' well-being? What choices of securities did they make, and how did these reflect their attitudes to investment risk? What were the implications of a rapidly growing investor population for corporate governance and the regulation of markets? How significant is gender in understanding new patterns of wealth holding and investment?

This interdisciplinary book brings together a range of leading international scholars to answer these questions and to develop important new research agendas. Foremost among these is a concern for gender, with several of the chapters exploring the growing importance of women within investment markets. These findings open up dialogues between economic and financial historians with social, gender, and feminist historians, and add a significant new dimension to existing research on women's economic agency. The volume also breaks fresh ground by analysing aspects of wealth holding and finance in British colonial settings: Canada and Australia. Understanding the extent to which global financial processes shaped the economic lives of those on the 'periphery' as well as at the 'heart' of empire will offer new insights into the social and geographical diffusion of financial markets.

David R. Green is Reader in Geography at King's College London. His research examines the relationships between wealth, welfare, gender and place in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Much of this work focuses on cities and he is currently chair of the UK's Urban History Group and a past editor of The London Journal. His publications include Pauper Capital: The London Poor Law, 1790-1870 (Ashgate, 2010), Family Welfare: Gender, Property and Inheritance since the Seventeenth Century (co-ed, Praeger, 2004) and From Artisans to Paupers: Economic Change and Poverty in London, 1790-1860 (Scolar, 1995).

Alastair Owens is Senior Lecturer in Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. His research interests are in gender, wealth and material culture in nineteenth-century Britain. He is Review Editor for The London Journal. Recent publications include: Gender Inequalities, Work and Consumption (co-ed, Ashgate, 2010) Women, Business and Finance in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Rethinking Separate Spheres (co-ed, Berg, 2006), Family Welfare: Gender, Property and Inheritance since the Seventeenth Century (co-ed, Praeger, 2004) and Urban Fortunes: Property and Inheritance in the Town, 1700-1900 (co-ed, Ashgate, 2000).

Josephine Maltby is Professor of Accounting and Finance at the University of York. She has research interests in accounting and business history, in particular the history of corporate governance and women's savings and investments. She has published widely on these themes including recent articles in Accounting History, Business History and Feminist Economics. She is co-editor of a special edition of Accounting Business and Financial History on women and investment (2006) and of Women and their Money 1700-1950 (Routledge, 2008)

Janette Rutterford is Professor of Financial Management at the Open University. Her research interests include equity valuation, pension fund management, corporate finance, and the history of investment and finance, especially the history of women investors. She is an expert on the stock exchange. Recent publications include Women and their Money 1700-1950 (co-ed, Routledge, 2008), An Introduction to Stock Exchange Investment (Palgrave, 2007, 3rd ed.) and Financial Strategy (John Wiley, 2007) as well as numerous articles in academic journals.