5 brilliant widows from the past who successfully ran their spouse's business

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Today, the lists of the richest and most influential people include the fair sex. In the past, entrepreneurship was by no means a female occupation. But cute girls bravely took on an unusual business, pushing their way through stereotypes and bias. Historians say that the greatest business opportunities were given to widows who were forced to run a business after their husband died. They could establish both the sale of cannonballs and leather production.

Natalia Bakhrushina

This woman actually showed serious qualities. When Natalya Ivanovna's husband died in 1848, a double shock awaited his widow. In addition to losing a loved one, the woman faced the prospect of losing her family business - a tannery equipped with the latest technology. As it turned out, promising and high-tech production at that time was completely built on borrowed money. Everyone advised the widow and sons of Alexei Bakhrushin to declare bankruptcy and abandon the inheritance entirely, so as not to fall into a debt trap.

But Natalya Bakhrushina then convened a family council, at which, together with her sons, she decided to try to bring the enterprise out of the crisis, so as not to tarnish the name of her deceased husband and father. For 14 years, until her death, Natalya Bakhrushina took an active part in affairs. The family agreed with creditors on an installment plan, they did not divide the inheritance, they refused to take a loan. The whole large family lived under one roof, which made it possible to save on food and clothing, because everything that was needed to meet daily needs was purchased in bulk.

By the time of her departure in 1862, Natalya Bakhrushina managed to pay off all her debts and see the prosperity of the tannery, to which a cloth factory was added in 1851.

Katarina Alman

Julius Ahlmann, husband of Katharina Braun, daughter of the chairman of the Cologne Judicial Board, ran a metallurgical plant in Büdelsdorf, and in 1931 he died of cancer. Before his death, the industrialist voiced his last will about the transfer of management of the company into the hands of his wife, beloved Kate. For Germany in the 1930s, this was nonsense, but, surprisingly, the entire supervisory board unanimously supported the candidacy of Katharina Alman.

And time has shown - it was absolutely the right decision. Katarina took up the transformation of the joint-stock company into a limited company, thereby increasing its attractiveness to creditors. At the end of World War II, the company was closed, but later started working again. By managing the company, Katarina Alman expanded the range, and the plant, which initially specialized in the production of cast-iron bathtubs, began to produce household appliances, ceramic and enamel products, and later a shipping company and a forwarding agency were separated from its divisions.

Katarina Ahlmann herself received many state awards, founded and headed the Association of German Business Women, which still exists today. Unlike the enterprise itself, which was closed in 1997 due to bankruptcy. But Katharina Alman was no longer alive by that time, she died back in 1963.

Vera Alekseeva

She was only 12 years old when her father, who owned a factory of crushed silver, gave his daughter, the heiress of an old merchant family, to marry Semyon Alekseev, the manager of the production of gimmicks, who would be 22 years older than the bride. The husband's enterprise flourished: gold and silver thread was in great demand at that time, it was bought for embroidery of military uniforms, festive camisoles and clothes of church ministers.

The Alekseevs' marriage lasted 37 years, until the death of the spouse in 1823. By that time, the children of Semyon Alekseev were engaged in expanding the family business, but the merchant's widow took over the management of the gimp factory. She agreed to export the golden gimp and brought the company's turnover to half a million rubles a year. It should be noted that all the gold-casting factories in Moscow had a turnover not exceeding one million rubles.

Vera Alekseeva received the title of Commerce Counselor, her factory was awarded many gold medals and had the right to place the state emblem on its products. For 28 years, while Vera Alekseeva was managing the enterprise, the factory flourished. After her death, her grandson offered to redesign the enterprise into a cable plant, and when the October Revolution broke out, the entire family business was nationalized. The grandson who proposed to transfer the gold-threading factory to a cable factory was none other than Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky.

Marguerite de Wendel

The widow of a French industrialist from Ayanj Marguerite de Wendel (maiden name d'Osen) took over the management of her husband's forges at the age of 66 in 1784. The eldest son of an industrialist refused to engage in an enterprise located 300 kilometers from his hometown. It did not get the smithies in the best times, their profits were constantly falling, and the state was ready to buy forged cannonballs cheaper than their cost, as well as mortar carriages.

Marguerite de Wendel was able to achieve an increase in the purchase price, and from the French Revolution she expected reforms and permission for unhindered trade within the country. But she faced new problems: the need to convert the furnaces to coal, which was very expensive. Marguerite de Wendel was not going to surrender, she achieved benefits and subsidies for her enterprise, and later, in 1792, received a large order for the army. And this despite the fact that it was considered very unreliable due to the emigration of her son to Germany, and a large number of cannonballs, shells and bullets had to be shipped in 24 hours.

The entrepreneur went down in history as Madame d'Ayanzh, and the locals called her only the Iron Lady. True, the ending of Marguerite de Wendel was sad: her grandson was executed in 1793, and the lady herself, 74 years old, was not sent to the guillotine only because of her very old age and a certificate of dementia. Before her release, she spent several months in prison, and after her release, she learned about her son's suicide, found her smithies looted. And from the state she was entitled to a tiny pension and a couple of rooms in her own castle. The workers, who remembered Madame d'Ayange's kind attitude, brought her grain so that she would not starve to death.

Yvonne-Edmond Fuanan

By the time of her husband's death in 1928, Yvonne-Edmond Fuanan already had experience in managing a metallurgical plant in Charleville-Mezieres, which was led by her husband. In 1914, she was only 22 when her husband went to war, leaving all matters to his young wife. After her husband's return, Yvonne-Edmond Fuanan became the commercial director, and years later took the reins into her own hands.

Initially, Savarin et Veuve Foinant, under the direction of Yvonne-Edmond Fuanan, produced wrenches that were successfully sold throughout Europe. By the way, under her the main positions at the enterprise were occupied by women. Yvonne has always taken an active civic position, was a member and leader of public organizations, founded the organization "Women - CEOs", created to help women entrepreneurs and those of the fair sex who did not believe in themselves. Yvonne-Edmond Fuanan retired only at the age of 78, and 11 years later, in 1990, she died. The international organization she created is still in operation today.

Women have long proved their right not only to occupy leadership positions, but also to influence the course of world history. Politics and economics, science and business, technology and industry, this is just a small list of those industries in which they work the most powerful women in the world. Representatives of the fair sex are not afraid to take responsibility, they are ready to make unpopular decisions in the long term, and at the same time they can resolve emerging conflicts through negotiations.