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Elsa Jane Guerin, the Woman Behind the Mountain Charley Legend
Writing as Mountain Charley, Elsa Jane Guerin told of riverboat work, western businesses, and revenge. Her memoir leaves a tangled trail between life and legend.
Women worth knowing
All Stories
Extraordinary women, overlooked stories, and a more complete history. Explore the lives, ideas, and achievements that changed the world.
Women Entrepreneurs
Women who built businesses and shaped opportunities.
Explore women entrepreneurs in history through the businesses they created, the ideas they put to work, and the obstacles they faced. Discover stories of enterprise, ambition, and independence across different times and places.
Where to begin
Building a business
From an idea to a livelihood, starting a business meant finding customers, organizing work, and taking risks.
- Madam C. J. Walker — built a haircare business that created opportunities for Black women.
- Esther Howland — turned her valentine designs into a thriving business employing women.
Enterprise & independence
Business could offer women control over their income and resources, even when laws and social expectations restricted their choices.
- Women of the California Gold Rush — women earned money and built businesses in frontier communities.
- Bess of Hardwick — managed wealth, property, and ambitious building projects in Tudor England.
Ideas & opportunity
Women developed enterprises around their skills and experience, opening new paths for themselves and others.
- Margaret Hamilton — followed her Apollo software work by founding software companies.
- Black businesswomen in history — explore women who built enterprises while confronting racism and sexism.
All entrepreneurship stories
5 Successful Black Businesswomen In History
Black businesswomen built thriving enterprises despite racism and sexism, creating jobs and supporting education, community institutions, and opportunities others had been denied.
Women of the California Gold Rush
A rush for gold created unusual opportunities for women to earn money, own businesses, and shape frontier communities through enterprise that extended well beyond mining.
Bess of Hardwick: The Second Wealthiest Woman in Tudor England (After the Queen)
She turned family alliances and shrewd financial decisions into wealth and influence, building magnificent homes that made her ambition visible and preserved it for later generations.
Margaret Hamilton, the Woman Behind the Moon Landing
Her team’s software kept an overloaded spacecraft computer focused on landing, helping protect a historic mission and establish new standards for reliable software engineering.
Esther Howland, the Mother of the American Valentine
Esther Howland turned paper lace and an upstairs workshop of women into a thriving valentine business, helping Americans send their love.
Madam C. J. Walker, self-made millionaire
She built a haircare business that created jobs for Black women, then used her wealth to support education, community institutions, and resistance to racism.