Julia Moore is a lecturer in law, and project manager for a variety of educational projects both in the UK and Europe. Dividing her work and living between the UK and France, she frequently advises start-up organisations in the not-for-profit sector, and produces educational material for a range of establishments. She is currently developing e-learning resources for the international education market.

No Job for a Woman:  New Capitalism, New Opportunities

As we enter an economic PRP (Post Recession Phase) politicians and pundits are eager to talk up familiar phrases -  ' a boom-time for enterprise' ' new ideas climate' and ' risk-taking is back'. ' Out of the box thinking', continues to be  a well-worn metaphor, but can we trust a new capitalism which seems to offer a positive outlook for the female business woman? And why should the PRP provide a improved environment for women especially?

Female enterprise - as with many other aspects of civic life -  was always present. Interrogate the time-line of any nation's economic history and we find women in business, navigating around their economies, forced by expediency and necessity. It is neither an exclusive preserve of the West, nor a phenomenon of 21st Century.

Starting with Europe, the early Chartist movement in England (early-19th Century) saw women at the forefront of mass communication.  Women, increasingly excluded from all sectors of employment (including heavy industry)  by the fledging trades unions , found themselves in new community roles, developing  new ways of making a living. Unfortunately this path was commonly into de-skilled sectors such as domestic service. Women became educators, co-ordinators of meetings - an early 'networking' culture emerging. It continued through the development of trade unionism, local co-operative branches, fore-runners of key establishment institutions such as the Womens' Insitute, and many more.

We can see for ourselves this repeated theme - study any developing country.Women, chosen over men, are given responsibility for local education and income-generation programmes. Men, it seems, are an identifiable risk when allocating financial or physical resources in poverty-stricken, underdeveloped regions. Women, by contrast, take fiscal responsibility and, often with little or no formal education, organically create community networks, connecting co-operative activities which grow into serious income-generating business (Tamil Nadu, Southern India). A combination of female-linked qualities and skills not looking out of place in a modern organisation - communitarian-type working,  individual networking, co-operative collaboration all valued, and recognized modern management skills.

Corporatism and business start-up depends on the craft of such qualities. In pre-industrial Europe,  knowing your local community, moving and shaking with local leaders, looks very similar to 21st Century chambers of commerce or networking seminars.

Taking the aphorism- 'everything has its time' -  women have long taken advantage of economic  ups and downs, challenging traditional boundaries re-directing into new career paths  - female medics, engineers, scientists were more prevalent in pre-liberalised Soviet Union. The pivotal role of women in traditional male occupations throughout both world wars is now well-documented, their serious contribution to the war(s) effort rightfully acknowledged.  Technology, especially nano-technology has played a huge role in opening up many techniques in male-dominated occupations. Removing, to a certain degree, the need for brute physical strength (fire-fighting, front-line armed conflict)- in the way the typewriter opened up office work as the post-war occupations expanded, matching the 1950s consumer boom.

Exclusion from the mainstream, history demonstrates, can provide  women with differential opportunities, usually at the local, community level. Where best to learn the craft of management and business acumen, than within your immediate environment. Simple ideas can lead to fiscal innovations- dividends payout (early form of store-loyalty cards) with the Co-Op, employee stakeholders (John Lewis ,Costa Coffee) and the creation of the LETS system -  a formal 'bartering' agreement with  no use of cash payment, where communities find value in local skills and match needs to available help. Put a redundant woman alongside that of a man, and the woman is more likely to take a flexible approach as to what path she takes towards re-employment and/or re-training. On the downside, this contributes to the cycle of negative pay parity between men and women.  Women are more inclined to need family-friendly employment and become sucked into the spiral of low-pay, limited opportunities for improvement. History repeating itself.

Each economic phase can provide an improved platform for the way in which women 'do' business , the 3Cs - cautious, communicative and collegiate. A cynic suggests that the PRP will favour a risk-averse business climate. As with the women  leaders of Tamil Nadu- loans to women becomes expedient, as their risk-factor favours the safe path.

Victory may not be total, but the PRP merely presents yet another chapter of women exploiting the immediate environment in which they find themselves, whether high-flying entrepreneur or local LETS leader. Campaigns may be small, but each successful woman in business changes the landscape, for both men and women.