Mezi řemeslnou praxí a normou: ženské podnikání v rámci kodifikace generálních cechovních artikulí 1739
Between Craft Practice and Regulation: Women’s Entrepreneurship Within the Codification of the General Guild Articles of 1739

Summary/Abstract: This study explores the intersection of legal norms and everyday practices in relation to women’s entrepreneurship within the framework of early modern craft guilds in Moravia, with particular emphasis on the General Guild Articles of 1739. While guilds were traditionally male-dominated institutions, many local statutes included provisions allowing widows of masters to temporarily continue running their husbands’ workshops. The paper investigates how such regulations reflected broader attitudes toward gender and labour, and how they were applied in practice. Using a combination of normative texts and archival sources, including petitions submitted by women to the Moravian Gubernium, the study examines the legal mechanisms that enabled or limited women’s economic activity. Special attention is paid to the role of state reforms and Enlightenment efforts to modernize and centralize guild regulation, as well as to the ambiguity between official legal frameworks and the flexible responses of local institutions. The paper shows that women’s economic roles often extended beyond formal permissions and were active within the urban economy, challenging guild monopolies and negotiating space for their businesses. The study thus contributes to a more nuanced understanding of gender, regulation, and entrepreneurship in the pre-industrial Habsburg lands.

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