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Business Women in Europe: From a Husband's Permission to Boardroom Quotas | Female Entrepreneurs

TL;DR: how long have business women in Europe had equal rights?

Not long. Married women in France needed their husband's consent to take a job or open a bank account until 1965; in Spain until 1975; in West Germany a wife could work only if it didn't clash with her family duties until 1977; in Switzerland until 1988. Today women are 34% of the EU's self-employed and 35% of its managers, the EU requires 40% women among non-executive directors of large listed companies from mid-2026, and a new pay transparency law is arriving. Many of the founders reading this have mothers who started work under the old rules.

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When I talk about business women in Europe, people often assume equality is old news. It isn't. The legal right of a married woman to work, sign a contract or open a bank account without her husband's permission is younger than many of today's founders' parents. This guide traces how business women in Europe went from needing permission to boardroom quotas, country by country and law by law, and what the latest rules mean for women who run businesses in 2026.
For today's numbers and 20 women who built companies, see our sister guide on business women in 2026. For the most valuable female-founded companies and their latest valuations, see female companies in 2026 on mean.ceo.
The right of a married woman to open her own bank account is younger than the Beatles' first album in some European countries. Equality in business is recent, and still unfinished.

When did married women get the right to work and do business?

CountryYearWhat changed
Netherlands1957Married women's legal incapacity ended (the Lex Van Oven); the civil-service marriage bar was removed in 1957–58
France1965Married women could work, open a bank account and manage their own property without their husband's consent
Ireland1973The marriage bar that forced women out of the civil service when they married was abolished
Spain1975The licencia marital, a husband's permission for his wife's legal and business acts, was abolished
Italy1975Family law reform gave spouses full legal equality (the husband's formal authorisation had ended in 1919)
United Kingdom1975The Sex Discrimination Act made it unlawful to refuse women credit, loans or finance because of their sex
West Germany1977A wife no longer needed her husband's consent to take paid work
Portugal1978Married women no longer needed their husband's authorisation to trade or take up a profession
Switzerland1988A new marriage law ended the husband's right to decide whether his wife could work
Sources: French Senate archives, Lex Van Oven (NJB), Irish Statute Book, BOE, Corte costituzionale, legislation.gov.uk, bpb.de, CIG Portugal, Swiss Parliament.

France: 1965

Before the law of 13 July 1965 on matrimonial regimes, a married Frenchwoman needed her husband's agreement to take a job and could not open a bank account in her own name. The French Senate's archive describes it as the moment a wife could finally manage without her husband's permission. Some gaps remain today: see the 2026 data on business women, pay and wealth on mean.ceo.

Spain: 1975

Until May 1975, a married Spanish woman needed her husband's permission, the licencia marital, to work, open an account or sign contracts. Law 14/1975 replaced it with a simple principle: marriage restricts neither spouse's legal capacity.

West Germany: 1977

West Germany's 1958 equality law still allowed a wife to work only if it was compatible with her duties in marriage and family. The marriage reform law passed in 1976 and in force from 1 July 1977 removed that condition, as the Federal Agency for Civic Education explains.

Ireland: 1973

Until the Civil Service (Employment of Married Women) Act 1973, women in Ireland's civil service had to resign when they married. Marriage bars like this, also found in the Netherlands until 1957–58, pushed generations of women out of paid careers just as they gained experience.

Switzerland: 1988

Swiss voters approved a new marriage law in September 1985 by 54.7%; most men voted no and most women yes, according to the Swiss Parliament. Until it took effect in 1988, a Swiss wife needed her husband's consent to work outside the home.

Business women who built companies before the law caught up

Some women built remarkable businesses long before equal rights, often as widows, who had more legal freedom than wives, or by working around the rules.
  • Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin (France). Widowed in 1805 at 27, she took over her husband's champagne house. Veuve Clicquot credits her with inventing the riddling table in 1816 and the first blended rosé champagne in 1818.
  • Margarete Steiff (Germany). She sewed a felt elephant pincushion in 1880, the company's official founding year, and built one of the world's best-known toy makers.
  • Melitta Bentz (Germany). A Dresden housewife, she registered her coffee filter in 1908 and founded her company with 72 Reichspfennig of capital, according to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. She sold more than 1,200 filters at the Leipzig fair in 1909.
  • Helena Rubinstein (Poland, then the UK and France). Born in Kraków, she opened a salon in Melbourne in 1902, in London in 1908 and in Paris in 1909, and built a global cosmetics empire.
  • Coco Chanel (France). She opened her first millinery shop on rue Cambon in Paris around 1910 and turned it into one of the world's most famous fashion houses.
  • Aenne Burda (Germany). In 1949 she began building the Burda Moden publishing house in Offenburg, which became one of the world's largest fashion magazines.
For founders of more recent decades, from Dame Stephanie Shirley to Anne Boden, see our female founder success stories and the 20 founders in our sister guide.

How the EU changed the rules for business women

  • 1957: the Treaty of Rome wrote equal pay for men and women into European law (Article 119), partly because only France had an equal-pay law and its firms feared unfair competition.
  • 1975: the Equal Pay Directive turned the principle into enforceable rules.
  • 1986 and 2010: directives on self-employed women, the second of which gives them the right to a maternity allowance of at least 14 weeks.
  • 2022: the Women on Boards Directive set a target of 40% of non-executive seats, or 33% of all board seats, for the under-represented sex in large listed companies by 30 June 2026, according to the Council of the EU.
  • 2026: the Pay Transparency Directive had to be in national law by 7 June 2026, according to the European Commission, but only three or four of the 27 member states had fully transposed it on time.
For a closer look at recent EU measures, read policy changes impacting women entrepreneurs in the EU.

Where business women in Europe stand today

Women are now 34.3% of the EU's self-employed (2025) and 35.2% of its managers (2024), according to Eurostat. Yet women are still just under 10% of the CEOs of the largest listed companies, and all-female founding teams still receive only about 1% of European venture capital. Read the full picture in our female founder statistics for Europe and on the startup funding gender gap.
History also explains a pattern in today's data: many women start businesses later in life, after careers and caring years that their mothers' generation was often legally pushed out of. We explore this in why women start businesses later.

What the new rules mean if you run a business

  • If you hire: pay transparency rules oblige employers to tell candidates the pay or pay range for a job and stop them asking about pay history. Check when your country's version applies.
  • If you're self-employed and planning a family: EU law guarantees access to maternity allowance, but you may need to opt in; see our guide to founder safety nets in Europe.
  • If you sit on, or advise, a board: large listed companies are now actively looking for experienced women directors.
  • If you're raising money: the funding gap is the barrier that law has changed least; plan for grants, angels and revenue alongside investors.
Write the next chapter

Fe/male Switch is a startup game where women build real businesses in weekly quests, with an AI co-founder and a community of founders across Europe. The rights our mothers fought for are only useful if we use them.

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Conclusion: equality in business is younger than we think

The story of business women in Europe is not one of slow, natural progress. It is a story of laws: laws that kept married women out of bank accounts and jobs until the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and laws that now require boards to include women and employers to publish pay. Knowing that history explains much of today's gap, and why it can close fast once the rules change. The next chapter will be written by the women starting businesses now; see the skills of an entrepreneur you already have from your job and our 90-day plan to start a startup.

FAQ: business women in Europe

When could women open a bank account in France?

From the law of 13 July 1965, married women in France could open a bank account and take paid work without their husband's consent.

When could married women work without their husband's permission in Germany?

In West Germany, from 1 July 1977, when the marriage law reform removed the rule that a wife could work only if it was compatible with her family duties.

What was the licencia marital in Spain?

A husband's legal permission that a married Spanish woman needed to work, sign contracts or run her own affairs. It was abolished by Law 14/1975 in May 1975.

Which European country was last to give married women economic independence?

Among Western European countries, Switzerland, where a new marriage law approved in 1985 took effect in 1988 and ended the husband's right to decide whether his wife could work.

What is the EU Women on Boards Directive?

An EU law requiring large listed companies to have at least 40% of non-executive director seats, or 33% of all board seats, held by the under-represented sex by 30 June 2026.

What is the EU Pay Transparency Directive?

A 2023 EU law that requires employers to share pay ranges with job candidates, bans questions about pay history and requires gender pay gap reporting. Member states had to transpose it by 7 June 2026, but most were late.

Who was the first famous businesswoman in Europe?

There were many earlier ones, but Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who ran the Veuve Clicquot champagne house from 1805, is often named among the first modern businesswomen.

What percentage of business owners in Europe are women today?

Women are 34.3% of the EU's self-employed (2025) and 28% of self-employed people with employees, according to Eurostat.
2026-10-12 23:00