Ana Jansen: one of the forerunners of female entrepreneurship in Brazil

Abstract

Through research, this article aims to understand the entrepreneurial profile of D. Ana Jansen at a time when society was strongly patriarchal in the province of Maranhão, in the middle of the nineteenth century. For this, we sought to solve the problem of how D. Ana Jansen developed her administrativeand managerial capacity, outlining her entrepreneurial profile in a period where society wasstrongly dominated by the male figure, both in the political and commercial spheres, in São Luís. The goal was to identify D. Ana Jansen’s entrepreneurial profile, which became necessary to recognize the economic and social characteristics of the province of Maranhão in the nineteenth century, its aspects related to entrepreneurship in Maranhão, and the prominent role that D. Ana Jansen achieved through her performance in politics, administration, economy, and society in Maranhão. A qualitative approach of basic research with a bibliographic and documentary survey was employed to study the categories of Brazilian commerce in the nineteenth century, Maranhão province, and the figure of D. Ana Jansen as a pioneer of female entrepreneurship in the state. In addition, the qualitative method and content analysis were used to treat the data and information collected through the literature review. After the study, we found that the female entrepreneurship of D. Ana Jansen in the nineteenth century began from her life experiences and actions in the political context in which she was in the province of Maranhão. Our findings also demonstrated her skills and opportunities to run a business and manage the public office at the time, where she gained her place in Maranhão society and created her way of multiplying the province’s heritage. The present study identified the characteristics and traits of life as a professional that formed D. Ana Jansen’s entrepreneurial profile and, being the pioneer in the potable water distribution trade, a business model consistent with the current.