Perhaps the most important feature of Anna's life and career was her continued status as a single woman, which varied from the typical experience. Married immigrant women contributed to their families' financial well-being in a variety of ways. Some, like Anna's sister Eugenia Valcarenghi, operated groceries or other family businesses with their husbands. In Eugenia's case, the extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit displayed by many of the Tirocchis and the fact that she ran the business alone for many years after her husband's untimely death suggest that she may have been the moving force behind the grocery all along. Eugenia's husband, moreover, had continued in Providence to pursue his former Italian employment as a house painter. In some years, Luigi is listed in the Providence City Directories as a grocer; in others, he is designated a painter or decorator. Eugenia also regularly took in boarders, a common means by which immigrant women contributed to their family income without working outside the home, and rented storefront space in her building to other businesses. Primrose Tirocchi remembered both her aunts Eugenia and Anna as powerful personalities in the family. Another Tirocchi woman who played an important role in a family business was Assunta, the wife of Tito's son Giuseppe, who for years merited a separate entry in the Providence City Directory as secretary for her husband's Ideal Concrete Products Company. Often, immigrant women supplemented the family income through labor accomplished at home. Mary Riccitelli worked in the Tirocchi shop for years, becoming one of its most skilled seamstresses. After her marriage to Panfilo Basilico, she left 514 Broadway but contributed to her new family as many Italian women did, by sewing at home.(29)

In remaining unmarried, Anna avoided any possibility of having to share authority or defer to a husband. The patriarchal family governance often attributed to Italian culture did not touch her. With Dr. Cella, her American-born brother-in-law, Anna invested in several commercial properties, and his practice was located at 514 Broadway. Anna managed the business aspects associated with their properties, such as paying taxes and arranging insurance. When it came to the shared expenses of the Broadway businesses (Dr. Cella's medical practice and the dress shop), Anna paid the bills and Louis reimbursed her for his share. On occasion he would deal with the shop's bookkeeper "so as not to disturb Miss Tirocchi."(30) The assumption that women generally should be subject to male authority was, of course, not limited to Italians. In 1920, the census enumerator first recorded the Broadway house as Anna's property, but then crossed out the entry and made Dr. Cella the household "head," giving him ownership of the property. Anna was designated as the "sister-in-law" in her own home.