Women workers in the Old Regime have long been considered unskilled drudges with little access to technological training or legal power. But close examination of women working in Rouen and Lyon casts these ideas into doubt. In Rouen, some 10% of the guild force comprised guild mistresses who behaved just like their male guild colleagues.Relying on the legal exception of “marchandes publiques” that gave them adult status in their business, they successfully defended their technical monopolies, incorporated additional forms of expertise by amalgamating with other guilds, and vertically integrated their crafts with a range of processes.Gaining the right to sell raw materials as well as finished goods, they were economic actors to be reckoned with in wholesale and retail trade. In Lyon, on the other hand, without the chance to become guild mistresses, Lyons’ female auxilliary silk workers achieved status with their indispensable skill, crucial to the industry’s survival.Despite low pay,they gained benefits;vigorous participation in the underground economy earned them higher profit.Using guild privileges in Rouen or skill and guile in Lyon,women workers pursued their opportunities and strove for their own prosperity.