Economica: A Financial Times Best Book of 2025

Victoria Bateman

'Erudite, ambitious and richly global in scope' - PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads

'This book sets a new standard in economic history' - TIM HARFORD, author of How To Make the World Add Up

How many times have we been told that the working woman is a modern phenomenon? That men were responsible for the prosperity of humanity? That women's production was, for much of human history, confined to reproduction?

Economica shows that women have always been at the heart of economic progress, as entrepreneurs, merchants and industrialists - from Phryne, the richest woman in Ancient Athens, to Ching Shih, a sex-worker turned pirate who controlled trade in the South China Sea. Author Victoria Bateman also highlights the amazing stories of female workers who built the Pyramids, traded on the Silk Road and dominated London's medieval breweries.

Spanning the past twelve millennia, from the Stone Age to the present day, Economica rewrites our understanding of women's role in the economy, and tells a more accurate history of us all.

'Victoria Bateman's revelatory and compelling new book puts women at the very heart of mankind's economic history. Economica should help ensure that's where they will remain' - BEN CHU, BBC

'A must-read for anyone interested in women's history and economic justice' - AMANDA FOREMAN, author of Georgiana and A World on Fire