Women have always run businesses, and history is full of inspirational female entrepreneurs whose contributions have often been airbrushed out of the record, like those of women artists, scientists, and inventors. In the UK, women in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries faced severe legal and financial barriers: married women surrendered control of their property under coverture, could not vote, and were routinely refused bank loans or guild membership. Despite this, thousands ran shops, factories, and trading houses, many rising from poverty or widowhood.
Today the picture has shifted, but not enough. The Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship found in its original 2019 report that only around one in three UK entrepreneurs is female, and that equalising startup rates between men and women could add up to £250 billion to the UK economy. As we approach International Women’s Day 2026, these inspirational female entrepreneurs from history show what is possible when talent meets determination, even when the law is stacked against you. For the latest UK picture, see Women in Business: Key UK Facts.
The legal barriers early women founders faced
Until the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, a married woman in England and Wales had no legal right to own property or keep her own earnings. Coverture meant husband and wife were treated as one person under law, with the husband holding authority. Women could not vote in national elections until 1918, and even then only for women over 30. Access to credit, guild membership, and formal contracts was limited or denied.
These restrictions make the achievements of the women below more remarkable. They built businesses through loopholes, widowhood, spinsterhood, or sheer persistence, often operating in sectors, such as textiles, food, and retail, where society grudgingly accepted female labour.
Eliza Tinsley: Black Country ironmaster
Eliza Tinsley (1813–1882) was one of the most successful industrialists of the Victorian age. When her husband died in 1851, she took over his small nail- and chain-making business in Wolverhampton and turned it into the Eliza Tinsley Company. Under her leadership, the firm expanded into hardware manufacturing, employed a substantial local workforce, opened a London showroom, and exported goods around the world. Tinsley’s enterprise helped shape the Black Country’s metalworking economy and remained a significant name in British hardware for more than a century.
Eleanor Coade and the Sleepe sisters: Georgian enterprise
Female entrepreneurship in Britain stretches back well before the Industrial Revolution. Cambridge University’s City Women in the 18th Century exhibition brought together more than 75 women-led businesses in Georgian London, drawn from the archives of City of London guilds. The research overturns the assumption that women only entered guilds in the 20th century.
The Sleepe sisters, Martha, Esther, and Mary, learned fan-making from their mother and each ran her own shop in 18th-century Cheapside. Their luxury fans were sold to wealthy Londoners, and the sisters managed stock, apprentices, and suppliers independently. As exhibition curator Dr Amy Louise Erickson noted:
“These City businesswomen prospered and practised a range of occupations in a way which would have been inconceivable in the middle of the 20th century. Historians still don’t understand exactly how or why women dropped out of the management of manufacturing and commerce.”
Eleanor Coade (1733–1821) was another Georgian manufacturer who turned her father’s failing business into one of the most respected stoneware firms in Britain. In 1769 she opened Coade’s Artificial Stone Manufactory in Lambeth, producing a durable ceramic stoneware known as Coade stone. The material was used on the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, Buckingham Palace, and St George’s Chapel, Windsor, among many other landmarks.
Coade never married, which allowed her to retain legal control of her property and business. She employed leading sculptors, marketed her product as “Coade’s Lithodipyra,” and ran the firm for more than 50 years. Her success demonstrates that women in the 1700s could lead large-scale manufacturing and export ventures when the law allowed them to hold assets in their own name.
Sarah Guppy: inventor and engineering consultant
Sarah Guppy (1770–1852) was a Bristol-born inventor and engineering entrepreneur whose work influenced some of Britain’s most famous bridges. In 1811 she patented a method for piling foundations to protect riverbanks and bridge piers, and she later advised on the design of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. She also designed domestic devices, from a tea urn to a bed that folded into a desk, and secured patents at a time when few women were involved in engineering.
Guppy combined invention with business acumen, licensing her ideas and consulting on major infrastructure projects. Her career challenges the stereotype that women’s historic economic contribution was limited to textiles or retail.
Mary Quant and Anita Roddick: building global brands
Mary Quant (1930–2023) revolutionised British fashion and built a global brand from a small boutique in Chelsea. In 1955 she opened Bazaar on the King’s Road, selling the youthful, playful clothes that became synonymous with the Swinging Sixties. She is widely credited with popularising the miniskirt and tights, and by the late 1960s her label was stocked internationally.
Quant’s success was built on sharp design instincts and commercial flair. She understood branding, licensing, and mass-market production, turning a single London shop into a worldwide fashion business. She was made a Dame in 2015 for services to British fashion.
Anita Roddick (1942–2007) founded The Body Shop in Brighton in 1976 with just 15 products and a commitment to ethical sourcing. She built the company into one of Britain’s best-known beauty brands by refusing to test on animals, promoting fair trade, and campaigning on environmental and human-rights issues. By the 1990s, The Body Shop had hundreds of stores worldwide.
Roddick proved that a business could be both profitable and principled. She was appointed a Dame in 2003 and remains a powerful example of how values-led entrepreneurship can reshape an industry.
International pioneers who inspired British women
Not every pioneer was British. Bessie Coleman (1892–1926), the daughter of African-American and Native American sharecroppers, became the first black woman to earn a pilot’s licence. Barred from flight schools in the United States because of her race and gender, she travelled to France in 1920 and qualified there in 1921. On her return, Coleman worked as a stunt pilot and lecturer, running her own aviation shows and using her earnings to open a flight school for black Americans.
Madam C.J. Walker (1867–1919), born Sarah Breedlove, created a hair-care empire for black women and became one of the wealthiest self-made women in America. Orphaned at seven, she developed and marketed her own line of beauty products, founded the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, and employed thousands of women as sales agents. She was also a philanthropist and activist, funding scholarships, civil-rights organisations, and the construction of a YMCA.
What inspirational female entrepreneurs teach us today
The barriers these women faced were structural, not personal. Coverture, exclusion from guilds, and lack of credit were legal choices made by society. Today the barriers are different but still real. The British Business Bank continues to document the funding gap for women-led businesses, and the Rose Review progress check shows that closing the gap remains a long-term project.
Modern founders can draw several practical lessons from these histories:
- Use the networks available to you. The Sleepe sisters learned their trade from their mother and trained apprentices. Today, communities such as Women in Business Networks UK provide mentorship and peer support.
- Protect your intellectual property. Sarah Guppy patented her inventions. Today, the Intellectual Property Office offers patents, trademarks, and design registration to protect your ideas.
- Build a brand with values. Anita Roddick showed that ethical sourcing and campaigning can be a competitive advantage, not a cost.
- Access the funding designed for you. Schemes such as Start Up Loans for female founders and business grants for women in the UK exist to address the funding gap.
Practical action steps for women founders
- Read the latest UK women in business facts to understand the current landscape.
- Identify one barrier in your own business, such as access to finance, networks, or childcare, and research the scheme or organisation that addresses it.
- Document your business idea or invention and check what intellectual property protection you need.
- Join a women-led business network to find mentors and peers.
From Eliza Tinsley’s Black Country factories to Anita Roddick’s ethical beauty empire, these inspirational female entrepreneurs built businesses against laws, customs, and expectations that were stacked against them. Their stories remind us that entrepreneurship has never been the preserve of one gender, and that the UK’s economic history is richer for the women who refused to be written out of it.
