MSCA Doctoral Network proposal on women, finance and financial well-being from a historical perspective

Professor Susana Martínez-Rodríguez, Full Professor of Economic History at the University of Murcia, welcomes motivated doctoral candidates interested in joining an MSCA Doctoral Network proposal on women, finance and financial well-being from a historical perspective.

The University of Murcia is a public university in Spain with a strong research ecosystem. Its Research Portal currently includes more than 2,800 researchers, 365 research groups, over 119,000 publications and more than 8,000 theses, offering an active academic environment for doctoral training and international collaboration.

The proposed project explores women’s financial agency in historical perspective. It starts from the idea that financial well-being is not gender-neutral: women still face stereotypes that shape their relationship with money, investment, credit, entrepreneurship, salary negotiation, risk and long-term planning. Rather than assuming that women have historically lacked financial knowledge, the project will recover evidence of women as shareholders, company partners, investors, savers, creditors, entrepreneurs, managers of household economies and economic decision-makers.

The research aims to challenge the idea that finance has naturally or historically been a masculine sphere. By bringing historical evidence into dialogue with current debates, the project will contribute to discussions on gender equality, financial autonomy, financial inclusion, economic decision-making and well-being.

I offer supervision in economic history, financial history, business history, gender and finance, women’s participation in firms and capital markets, historical microdata and archival research. The candidate would join an interdisciplinary and internationally oriented research environment, with opportunities to develop strong research skills, engage with archival and quantitative historical evidence, participate in training activities and contribute to a broader conversation on women, money, autonomy and social well-being.

I am especially interested in candidates with a background in economic history, history, gender studies, economics, sociology, business history, financial history or related fields. The ideal candidate will be intellectually curious, open to interdisciplinary work and interested in connecting historical research with present-day social challenges.