oops - I meant to add at the end of that last email that the reason for
bringing up all this ancient history in the first place was to ask, does
history repeat itself regarding this model?  That is, is it still the case
in later periods that women might control a trade as long as it was
illegal, or considered a poor trade, and then be forced out once it became
clear that it was very lucrative?  Or was the cultural situation in the
19th century such that alcohol production was considered inappropriate for
women even at the level of a poor trade?  (Female brewers and distillers in
the early modern period tended to develop nasty reputations, at least in
literary sources....)
- Ann T.