This important collection, first published in 1993, brings together the most comprehensive analyses of women’s experience in business to date. The small business world – usually associated with men – is unpacked to display the multiple roles played by women. Links are made between lifestyles and business-styles, the interface between business and family life, paid and unpaid work and changing social and economic patterns. Throughout, the limitations of current theory, practice and policies in underestimating the significance of female entrepreneurship are shown. International in perspective, and drawing on the work of leading researchers in work and employment, this volume illuminates the hidden assumptions underlying approaches which concern themselves only with businessmen. It points the way to a better understanding of the meaning of self-employment and small business enterprise in market economies and to a more effective explanation of their role.