National Federation of Business and Professional Women identifies Jane Aitken as the first American businesswoman.
On 1 January 1930, representing the year in which the investigation was carried out, the National Federation of Business and Professional Women concluded that Jane Aitken had been the first American businesswoman.[6] Their retrospective search examined early American commercial records and imprints and identified Aitken’s independently operated printing and publishing enterprise, particularly active by 1808, as the earliest documented case of a woman running a business of this type in the United States.[6]
This designation did not reflect a title Aitken claimed for herself, but rather a twentieth‑century recognition of her pioneering role. At a time when women in business were organizing for professional advancement, the Federation sought historical models and found in Aitken an early exemplar of female entrepreneurship. She had not simply assisted in a family shop; she had inherited her father’s press and, despite substantial debts, published dozens of imprints under her own name, including complex works like Thomson’s Septuagint Bible and the 1811 census directory.[2][4][5][11]
The 1930 finding has since been quoted in educational resources and biographies, cementing Aitken’s status in women’s economic history.[6] While subsequent historians sometimes nuance or question sweeping “first” claims, the Federation’s conclusion remains an important moment of institutional recognition. It highlights how twentieth‑century women’s organizations recovered and celebrated forgotten female figures from the early republic, situating Aitken not only as a technical innovator in printing but also as a symbolic ancestor of modern businesswomen.[6]