Why the traditional history of the global economy is missing half the story
In short: Economic history is often told as a male-dominated narrative, casting women as passive housewives while men built the world. However, new evidence from archaeology and historical records reveals that women have been central to trade, production, and economic development since the Stone Age, fundamentally shaping the fortunes of nations.
The conventional view of economic history, dominated by figures like Henry Ford and JP Morgan, suggests that men were the sole architects of industrial progress. This perspective is reinforced by the statues of men like James Watt and Matthew Boulton that populate historic cities. Yet, this narrative ignores the female producers, bankers, and entrepreneurs who were active participants in the economy for centuries. For instance, eighteenth-century business cards, such as that of London shoemaker Ann Askew, prove that women were not only running shops but also managing international exports long before modern industrialization.
This historical erasure extends back to the Stone Age, where a persistent myth suggests that rigid gender roles—men as hunters and women as gatherers—were biologically predetermined. Recent archaeological discoveries are overturning this assumption. In 2018, researchers in the Peruvian highlands discovered a young woman buried with a sophisticated twenty-four-piece hunting kit. While initially misidentified as male, advanced scientific analysis of her teeth and bones confirmed her identity. This finding is part of a broader trend: of twenty-seven big-game hunters identified in the Americas between 12,000 and 8000 BCE, approximately forty percent were female.
Women’s economic influence was equally significant in the Bronze Age. In Mesopotamia, women like Lamassi were essential to the trade networks that powered the era. Living 1,200 km from her husband, Lamassi managed the production and caravan transport of cloth, which served as a primary currency. Because cloth was lightweight, durable, and easily graded for quality, it functioned as a vital medium of exchange before the widespread use of precious metals or banknotes. By centering women in these narratives, we gain a more accurate understanding of how civilizations rose and fell, and how the global economy truly evolved from caves to computers.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: How Women Made the Global Economy - Victoria Bateman
- Also: How Women Made the Global Economy
- Also: podcast.gresham.ac.uk — How Women Made the Global Economy - Dr Victoria Bateman - Gresham College Lectures
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