The kitchen table tycoons

Judi Bevan says that new technology has at last created real liberation for women — by enabling them to run successful businesses from home

Kitchen table tycoons — the new buzz phrase to describe women who set up their own businesses from home — now account for £4.4 billion of sales a year, according to Professor Tim Leunig at the London School of Economics. Their numbers are rising rapidly; research by Barclays Bank showed that women started a fifth of all new businesses this year compared with just 13 per cent in 1996.

Technology has done for women what Germaine Greer’s rhetoric never could — delivered them genuine autonomy over their own livelihoods. Ten years ago, when my career-minded friends had children, they would soldier back to work a few months after giving birth, squeezing themselves wearily on to trains and buses after disrupted nights. Detailed menus and timetables of activities were left with nannies.