West of England and South Wales Women's History Network Blog

In this blog, based on a paper she gave at the WESWWHN Annual Conference in October 2022 on Women and Money, Dr Jane Berney describes the barriers set before the first women accountants.   In October 2022 I was fortunate to be invited to present a paper to West of England & South Wales Women’s History Network Annual Conference on the theme of Women and Money: A Historical Perspective. My take on the theme was a review of the careers of the first female members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) as a means to explore the barriers they faced in their professional lives, how they navigated these barriers, and how their experiences reflect societal views on women and money that persist today. The ICAEW was founded in 1880 by royal charter. As a professional body its aim was, like all professional bodies, to promote its members as the experts in their field and well positioned to advise business and government on financial matters. As   A...

Dr Rosalind Johnson, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Winchester, presented a paper on the petitions of seventeenth-century businesswoman Elinor James at the WESWWHN Annual Conference on Women and Money: A Historical Perspective in 2022. In this blog, she explores the content and motivation behind James’s appeals to monarchs, politicians and alderman.  Elinor James (née Banckes, c.1645–1719), petitioner and printer, authored some ninety known printed papers during the period 1681–1716, addressed to six monarchs, both houses of parliament, and the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London. Her petitions discussed matters concerning trade, religion, the monarchy, and other aspects of current politics, and her activities in promoting her causes ensured she was well-known to her contemporaries. Many of James’s petitions referenced finance, both in trade and in household economics, and her concern is evident in these for the economic situation of those whom she saw as affect...