When Alice Foote MacDougall (1867-1945) began her coffee roasting and retail business in 1907, she did so under the more ambiguous name A. F. MacDougall. She knew that some of her customers and even some of her suppliers didn’t like the idea of a woman in business, so she let people make their own assumptions about what the initials “A. F.” might stand for. And yet at the same time, attitudes about gender were changing rapidly. More and more women were finding work in the city, while the suffrage movement and ideas about women’s equality were becoming increasingly popular.

It was therefore not long until, as MacDougall put it in her autobiography, “the business of the obscure A. F. MacDougall burst forth into the glory of Alice Foote MacDougall.” This change, however, was not about promoting the rights of women. MacDougall was in fact an anti-suffragist who cautioned against women entering the business world, but she knew that most of her customers felt differently. She was one of many business owners who understood the growing economic influence of women, and she positioned herself to take advantage of this change in the marketplace.

The Great Depression essentially marked the end of MacDougall’s ascent, and after some characteristically bold attempts to revive her fortunes, she retired in 1935. In December of that year she wrote in a letter to the New York Times that, “Most (of course not all) women are an intrusion in the orderly procession of commercial life. Untrained, unfitted, full of tradition, prejudices, and inhibitions, she is the fool who rushes in where wise men fear to tread.” It may seem incongruous, but while so much of her career looks strikingly modern, she remained very much a product of an earlier age.

This post is by Luis Rodriguez, Collections Management Librarian
I enjoyed this post very much, especially reading the excerpts from Alice MacDougall’s book. Her description of coffee should be an example to all marketers!
Through my own research of that time period, I discovered that many more women worked than is commonly thought, but their choices were limited. I love reading how some women, such as MacDougall, broke through.
Today my husband and I came across an old one pound coffee canister in an old collector’s shop in New Bedford, MA. The lovely yellow with black stripe tin bore the name Alice Foote MacDougall. We had to buy it as it is our family’s name, thanks to my husband and his.Thank you for your introduction to such an interesting lady. I will definitely be looking for her book. Sincerely, Eileen MacDougall Seekonk, MA.