The dressmakers: Women and entrepreneurship in Cape Town 1900–1939
本文利用报纸、住户调查、街道名录和人口普查四种资料，考察1900-1940年间开普敦女性在服装制造业兴起背景下从事裁缝创业的情况，发现不同种族的女性在裁缝业中仍有创业机会。
Women’s entrepreneurial activities remain understudied in South (and Southern) Africa. It is unclear whether this is because there were very few women in business or whether these businesses left limited historical records. This study looks at four different sources to investigate dressmaking in Cape Town from 1900 to 1940. Newspapers indicate that women owned dressmaking businesses in the city of Cape Town at the beginning of the twentieth century. A household survey is used to develop mini case studies to understand whether women owned such businesses or engaged in entrepreneurial activities related to dressmaking by the late 1930s in the context of a growing clothing manufacturing industry. Street directories provide further evidence of the prevalence of dressmaking establishments in the City for the period and censuses provide broad statistics regarding dressmakers. During these four decades, opportunities for entrepreneurship in dressmaking seem to have remained for women of different races.