Women of Merchants and Merchant Women. Evidence of Women's Commercial Initiatives at the end of the Fifteenth Century

Traditionally late medieval women have been considered only able to participate in the commercial sphere as retail salespeople or as subsidiary workers in family businesses. This article provides examples of women from the Campo de Calatrava (Castile) at the end of fifteenth century. They contradict the previous idea and lead to new perspectives on the autonomy of these women and the initiatives they promoted in public spaces that the hegemonic culture considered the domain of men.