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Zorina Khan

Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College

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Women in the Republic of Enterprise

In Search of Hetty Green: Self-Made Women Millionaires

March 12, 2022 By Zorina Khan

In 1887, the Los Angeles Times declared, “This is an age not only of millionaires, but of millionairesses as well.” Wealthy women “worth their weight in gold” have existed from the beginning of American history, but these entrepreneurs have often remained invisible to scholarship and to financial history.

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Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, finance, gender, women

Banking on Women

March 2, 2022 By Zorina Khan

(Yet another) First Women’s Bank opened in 2021, claiming to be the “nation’s first women-founded, women-owned, and women-led bank dedicated to closing the gender equity gap in access to capital.” But it is easy to demonstrate that the current First Women’s Bank is far from first on each and all of these counts.

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Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, economics, finance, women

Notable Women Inventors in Britain

February 14, 2022 By Zorina Khan

Fans of the history of technology can quickly name a dozen significant British inventors, but very few would be able to identify any women with noteworthy discoveries. Women who could circumvent institutional barriers tended to come from rather privileged backgrounds, or to have social connections – patent rosters featured many aristocrats, including a cotillion of countesses, baronesses, and even a duchess or two. However, studies of female patentees demonstrate that individual initiative could be just as potent as wealth, patronage, and self-promotion in generating technological innovation and social change.

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Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, gender, innovation, intellectual property, patents, technology, women

Notable Women Inventors of Maine

February 6, 2022 By Zorina Khan

The surge of new inventions and innovations in nineteenth century America transformed the world to an extent that arguably remains unmatched today. Even among the New England states known for their “Yankee ingenuity,” Maine inventors surpassed their peers. Among the few female entries in the National Inventors Hall of Fame are Helen Blanchard and Margaret Knight, celebrated because of their successful industrial machines. But the typical woman inventor productively directed their attention to supposedly minor “feminine inventions” like dress charts and kitchen tools that improved the lives of other women and their families.

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Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: gender, innovation, patents, technology, women

Women and Wealth in the New Gilded Age

October 23, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Are we currently living in a new Gilded Age embodied by the multi-billionaires of the Forbes 400, with their excesses of utopian cities and space tourism? Inclusion on The Forbes 400 list for 2021 requires net worth of at least $2.9 billion. However, these data underestimate women’s achievements, and conceal an underlying pattern of increasing entrepreneurial opportunities, socioeconomic mobility, and philanthropy by “robber baronesses.”

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Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: China, economics, finance, women

The Mystery of the Missing Minority Millionairess

October 14, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Usually reputable sources like the Guinness World Record claim that Madam C. J. Walker was the “first self-made millionairess” in the United States. However, Walker was not the first minority businesswoman who acquired enormous wealth. Numerous American Indians, Asians and black women have prospered through their own initiative and entrepreneurship, from the founding of the Republic.

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Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, finance, gender, women

Patent Priority: the First Woman Patent Lawyer

September 14, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Who was the first American woman patent lawyer? Novelty and priority in time are central to patent law, and it is especially apt to consider the pioneers who expanded diversity in the field. For those who think they know the answer to this question, this post will be surprising. She was Edith Julia Griswold (1863-1926); […]

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Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, gender, patents

A Pioneering Black Woman Patent Attorney

September 1, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Like millions of innovative individuals, MIRIAM E. BENJAMIN (1861-1947) was active in multiple inventive markets, as the patentee of two inventions, and assignee on another.  However, an overlooked and unique contribution is that she was the first black woman who practiced as a patent attorney. Miriam E. Benjamin was born in South Carolina to a […]

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Filed Under: Of Patents and Prizes, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, intellectual property, patents, women

Women and Innovation in Developing Countries

August 2, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Round table discussion of gender, patents, open source, and technology policy in India. Participants include Zorina Khan (the moderator) and leading Indian academics, patentees, entrepreneurs, and innovators.

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Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, gender, innovation, open source, patents, technology, women

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Recent Posts

  • Old School? Apprenticeships in the 21st Century April 6, 2022
  • In Search of Hetty Green: Self-Made Women Millionaires March 12, 2022
  • Banking on Women March 2, 2022
  • Notable Women Inventors in Britain February 14, 2022
  • Notable Women Inventors of Maine February 6, 2022
  • Back to School for the “Spring” Semester (1861) January 14, 2022
  • Looking Backward: From 5G to the Telegraph December 1, 2021
  • U.S. Patents: A Play in 10 Million Acts November 21, 2021
  • Thomas Edison and the Bowdoin Inventors November 15, 2021
  • Crypt-ic Tales October 31, 2021
  • Women and Wealth in the New Gilded Age October 23, 2021
  • The Mystery of the Missing Minority Millionairess October 14, 2021
  • Travelling Light October 4, 2021
  • Patent Priority: the First Woman Patent Lawyer September 14, 2021
  • Publish and Perish September 10, 2021
  • A Pioneering Black Woman Patent Attorney September 1, 2021
  • Reading on Location August 27, 2021
  • Copyrighting the Cultural Revolution in China and America August 26, 2021
  • The (New) Cultural Revolution in China August 23, 2021
  • Who was the First U.S. Economics Professor? Samuel Newman, of Bowdoin College August 16, 2021
  • Women and Innovation in Developing Countries August 2, 2021
  • Who’s Afraid of Standard Oil? July 31, 2021
  • Are Patents Monopolies? July 28, 2021
  • Between the Covers July 27, 2021
  • An Essay in Idleness July 27, 2021
  • Patent Waivers (or “Don’t know much about history…”) July 27, 2021

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  • Women in the Republic of Enterprise

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