Given the gender inequality that still exists in the businesses of today, one might think women had only just arrived in the workplace. The levels of gender-based discrimination that still blight the world of employment are suggestive of a society adjusting to a recent change.
And yet this couldn't be further from the truth. The sphere of business has been inhabited by both men and women for around 4,000 years, so new evidence suggests.
Check out this gallery to learn about history's first-known female entrepreneurs.