"[A] Man in Petticoats": Female Entrepreneurs in Wilkie Collins's Novels

Abstract

Wilkie Collins's, Man and Wife (1870) and Jezebel's Daughter (1880) portray female business owners who run their own enterprises independently. The concept of "female entrepreneurs" went against the social ethos of Victorian domestic ideologies. This essay argues that the novels suggested not only women's place beyond domestic spheres but also the possibility of their economic participation in Victorian society. Collins's Man and Wife and Jezebel's Daughter were published when women's property and economic participation were important Victorian political agendas. This essay argues that Collins's Man and Wife and Jezebel's Daughter supported Victorian women's entitlement to be independent economic agents as well as their contribution to the British economy through their participation in public businesses, thus foreshadowing the "New Woman" discourse on women's professional and financial independence.