1: A conscious but hidden female entrepreneur -- 2: Approaching the agency of a female entrepreneur -- 3: At the junction between Iceland and Denmark. Family “capital” and transnational ties as a lived experience -- 4: Journeys in a harsh and holistic world -- 5: A young business agent in the making -- 6: Education and agency in transnational spaces -- 7: Living a migration to North America -- 8: The continent of reality -- 9: A single working woman of the world -- 10: A farming – entrepreneurial – woman -- 11: Establishing a business at a transnational border -- 12: The businesswoman Pálína Waage -- 13: Conclusion.

Historical research into female entrepreneurs has become a burgeoning field in recent years. However, there is still a lack of studies of businesswomen based on their personal documents, and such documents seem to be rare. This book, an appraisal of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century East-Icelandic businesswoman Pálína Waage (1864-1935), fills that gap. It investigates the agency of a small-scale female entrepreneur, primarily based on her autobiography, diaries and letters, using the methodology of the history of experience and 'lived experience'. Sigrídur Matthíasdóttir is an independent scholar based in Iceland.