Women’s Business

Women’s Business
-Ilene Kantrov

Ilene Kantrov, in her essay entitled “Women’s Business,” describes how American business women started their business in U.S.A. She talks in detail about Lydia E. Pinkham and the other American women who followed Lydia’s ideals.

Lydia E. Pinkham initiated the techniques to advertise her products. She was successful because she combined her business with social work. She produced an unproven home remedy called Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound. In spite of her advertisement, she advocated on women’s rights, temperance and fiscal reform. She established Department of Advice and suggested women about diet, exercise and hygiene. Pinkham took advantage of general feminine problems. She was the most successful woman in the history of American business women.

Other women like Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden also followed the techniques of Pinkham but they took the help of glamour to advertise their products. Both of them produced cosmetics and attracted the attention of the customers by marrying European aristocrats.

Many of the women business was based on the traditional women’s skill. Lydia Pinkham used to prepare home remedy for her family before her husband’s business was in danger. Margaret Rudkin helped her husband by producing additive-free bread which she used to make for her asthmatic son. Elizabeth Arden brought respective attitude towards the cosmetics that were not treated as the respectable “facial treatment.” Arden also established salons and advised on hairstyling, nutrition and exercise. Rubinstein advised on diet and explained the advantages of raw foods.

Though many of the American business women were able to spread the image of social worker, their main eye was for making the profits. The claims made by those female entrepreneurs were sometimes false and their claims were taken by the authorities. Pinkham advocated on temperance, but she was selling alcohol. The American business women entered into the world of male business by their creative efforts of combining their social activities with their business, and the risk they took in advertising their products.