By Women, For Women: The Overlooked Foundations Of Global Business

"Singer, Avon, and Tupperware did not simply identify women as consumers or household managers. These three once US-headquartered companies understood women were essential as part of their distribution system, as educators of potential consumers, and as entrepreneurs - it was based on incorporating them in different business units that they created scalable business models that expanded across borders beginning in the late 19th century."

"This wasn't about companies trying to empower women or an early version of corporate feminism. It was a practical response to the economic and cultural realities of the time. At least from the late 1800s through the years after World War II, men and women were expected to work in different ways, business practices were in part defined by gender roles, and women's access to money, credit, and business spaces was tightly shaped by ideas about domestic life."

"That didn't mean women were passive or absent from economic life. Some companies clearly understood that, within the limits of what was culturally accepted, women made most household purchasing decisions, relied on strong social networks, and had deep, practical knowledge of the products they used every day. By organizing around these strengths, firms created a world of selling that still looks surprisingly similar to how many digital platforms operate today."

Long before social media and influencer marketing, several global firms built expansion strategies around women's labor, expertise, and networks. Singer, Avon, and Tupperware integrated women into distribution, consumer education, and entrepreneurship to create scalable, cross‑border business units beginning in the late nineteenth century. Gendered economic roles and constrained access to money, credit, and commercial spaces shaped those business models. Firms recognized that women made most household purchasing decisions, maintained strong social networks, and possessed deep practical product knowledge. By organizing around those capacities, companies solved pricing and financing challenges and established selling systems that resemble many contemporary digital platform tactics.

Read at Forbes