Abstract
This paper first examines whether there was a possibility for women to start and manage their own business in their life course before World War II and second, how married women were involved in the choice of starting business with their husband and what role she played in the store management. Few researchers had taken up the women on the small business. Even though there were such studies, the women had been considered as “assistants” of their husband. In this paper, I take commonly overlooked women, who worked for small store, and discuss the choice of self-employment and store management for women in their life course. The first case shows the woman who opened her store after doing a peddler, and the second case is the woman who opened and managed a store with her husband after World War II. From the first case, I found the women had life course that allowed them to start and manage the business on their own before World War II. From the second case, I discovered the wife of store owner participated in their store management not as a “assistant” but as a “partner” after World War II. The women could open their store before World War IIbecause there was the process of life course that allowed them to start with little capital as a peddler. The wife of store owner was not only an “assistant” but also a “partner” of the store management, since their business ability to buy and sell merchandise and to communicate with their customers were considered to be the important resource to increase the customer.
