Economica: A Financial Times Best Book of 2025
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'Erudite, ambitious and richly global in scope' - PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads
'This book sets a new standard in economic history' - TIM HARFORD, author of How To Make the World Add Up
THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW WOMEN MADE THE WORLD WEALTHY
Humanity's journey from poverty to prosperity is filled with men who have become household names. But how many female entrepreneurs, merchants and industrialists can you name?
Economica places women at the centre of the story of economic growth. Starting in the Stone Age and continuing to the present day, it takes the reader through the key economic milestones of the past twelve millennia - from the birth of farming to the advent of computing - all told through the experiences of women as well as men.
Historian Victoria Bateman weaves a thrilling, globe-spanning narrative that proves women weren't 'missing' from economic life, they were merely hidden from view. We discover the female workers who helped to build the Great Pyramid of Giza, and to plumb the city of ancient Rome; the silk weavers who made a vital contribution to the development of the Silk Road and global trade; the women who dominated London's brewing trade during medieval times; and the brave twentieth-century pioneers who fought to make our economies not just richer but fairer.
Economica rewrites our understanding of women's role in the economy, and tells a more accurate economic history of us all.
'Victoria Bateman's revelatory and compelling new book puts women at the very heart of mankind's economic history. Economica should help ensure that's where they will remain' - BEN CHU, BBC'A must-read for anyone interested in women's history and economic justice' - AMANDA FOREMAN, author of Georgiana and A World on Fire
Read MorePraise for Economica
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Erudite, ambitious and richly global in scope, Economica shows how women's economic labour has so often been overlooked, ignored or relegated to obscurity. Victoria Bateman's fascinating book does not just offer a corrective to the past, but serves as a vital guide to our collective futuresAmbitious, wide-ranging and absorbing - this book sets a new standard in economic history Victoria Bateman's Economica is a must-read for anyone interested in women's history and economic justice. Bateman powerfully argues that women have always been central to economic life, from 18th-century shoemakers like Ann Askew to pioneers like Priscilla Wakefield, who founded the UK's first bank for women and children. For centuries, laws and social norms have constrained women's economic freedom, not only limiting individual potential but also undermining prosperity for all. Her research reminds us: economies thrive when women have the autonomy to work, earn, and control their wealthVictoria Bateman's revelatory and compelling new book puts women at the very heart of mankind's economic history. Economica should help ensure that's where they will remainThe economic history of half of humankind has broken out of its ghetto. The time has come for Victoria Bateman's comprehensive stocktaking-of how women figured in the economy, from the caves to the computers. And the time has come for you to read it.Who are the wealth-creators? Victoria Bateman shows that the standard image of heroic male entrepreneurs or inventors could not be more misleading; in Economica she tells a gripping tale of all the unsung female industrialists and workers who are missing from conventional economic historiesAn entertainingly readable, well-evidenced global history that places women at its heart. Taking a grand sweep across the ages, it delivers a powerful message about freedoms and challenges us to shape our planet in the interests of all our citizensTaking readers on an enthralling journey from prehistory to the modern world, Victoria Bateman rightly emphasises the importance of women's economic agency in human history. Economica puts women's work back into the story of the global economy. Making the case for women's central importance, readers will be left wondering how economic history could ever be studied without reference to one half of the world's population
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