oa Female entrepreneurship in the Reposaari seaport community

This article discusses with the Finnish entrepreneurial women whose livelihoods were thoroughly linked to the shipping business, but who worked on the continent and in the port and did not leave to the sea by themselves. At the same time, the article is also a biography of three women who lived on the island in the long nineteenth century and how the conditions and social changes affected their lives. These women belonged to different generations, but were connected by entrepreneurship and responsibility to take care of family’s livelihood. At the same time, the article deals more broadly with female entrepreneurship and shows how the port functioned as an enabler for women’s entrepreneurship. The article questions what kind of earning opportunities the port community offered women in the nineteenth century. The study takes place on the west coast of Finland, in the harbor community of Reposaari.