Accounting, gender and history: the life of Minna Canth

This article introduces Minna Canth, one of the earliest businesswomen in Finland, although better known as a pioneer of Finnish realistic literature and champion of the women's movement. The historical study method is applied together with a narrative and interpretative approach to examine accounting and gender based on Minna Canth's bookkeeping and correspondence in the 1880s. Minna Canth's story brings together three realities that normally do not meet: women's everyday life, business, and literature. The study introduces an early female merchant who was knowledgeable about financial issues and managed her own business affairs independently. An intended contribution of this study to accounting and gender research is to extend the current knowledge about women's roles in the nineteenth century and their use of accounting at that time in history.