The authors argue that, far from some accepted stereotypes, women throughout history have not been passive in dealing with their economic needs, and that older women in particular had more agency than has previously been assumed. Contents: 1 Widows, Family and Poor Relief in England from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century – Richard Wall 2 Survival Strategies of Poor Women in Two Localities in Guipuzoca (Northern Spain) in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries – Lola Valverde Lamfus 3 Women, Work and Survival Strategies in Urban Northern Europe before the First World War – Beatrice Moring 4 Women, Households and Independence under the Old English Poor Laws – Susannah Ottaway 5 The Economic Strategies of Widows in Switzerland from the mid-Nineteenth to the mid-Twentieth Century – Anne-Lise Head-König 6 Mexico: Women and Poverty (1994–2004): Progresa-Oportunidades Conditional Cash Transfer programme – Verónica Villarespe Reyes and Ana Patricia Sosa Ferreira 7 Gender and Migration in the Pyrenees in the Nineteenth Century: Gender-Differentiated Patterns and Destinies – Marie-Pierre Arrizabalaga 8 Women and Property in Eighteenth-Century Austria: Separate Property, Usufruct and Ownership in Different Family Configurations – Margareth Lanziger