Women In Family Business

Wednesday 25 July, 2001

by George Tanewski

It appears that few women actively choose to embark on a career in a family business.

Some women decide to enter the family business immediately after graduating from high school or university without having being exposed to interviews or other employment. Others do so at another point in their lives because they want to help the family, when they are dissatisfied with another job, or when there is a need in the family firm and no one else is available to fill it. For the most part, women do not plan a career in the family business and do not aspire to eventual ownership. Women under the age of thirty, however, tend to be more career oriented and assertive about their own professional needs than older women.

Advantages for Women

Family businesses offer opportunities for women to hold positions and have incomes that are far better than those of women in other jobs. It must be acknowledged that at the present time, family businesses are among the few areas where there are real opportunities for women to reach the highest positions in business.

Family firms have advantages that have particular relevance for women. They offer flexibility in work schedules to meet the needs of women, who still assume major responsibility in the rearing of children. Childcare is beginning to be acknowledged in the business world as a workforce need and not exclusively a problem of working women. Corporations are offering paid and unpaid leave for parents as well as childcare services, both as long-term business investments and as good short-term cost efficiency measures that can lessen absenteeism. Family businesses, in contrast, do not look at the bottom line when they offer women (and men) the flexibility to arrange their schedules so that they can attend to the family’s needs; they accommodate them just because they are family.

Unique Contribution

Family businesses have much to gain from women’s input. Many factors in women’s psychology and socialization enable them to provide sorely needed humanization of the work environment. The consequences of the separation of home and work that took place after the Industrial Revolution are still evident. During that period, home and work became geographically separate places for the first time; with this change came an increased segregation of roles based on gender. Women were confined to the house and the caring of children, and home became the refuge where care and love were given to family members. The place where men spent most of their waking hours became dehumanized, partially because of the absence of warmth and nurturing. Work and home became distinct cultures, one predominantly male and the other predominantly female.

The supportive, sensitive functions of women in families should be valued as one of the essential characteristics of a well-balanced manager. Fortunately, recent changes in management training and practices seek to incorporate these supportive, attentive qualities in business. Family businesses are more accepting of these qualities than nonfamily businesses. Women are called in to solve problems, conflicts, and tensions among family members. Keeping peace is one of the most popular functions assigned to women in family businesses, and most women readily accept the role.

Conclusion

A family firm cannot afford to overlook half of its potential talent, thereby risking continuity and growth. If family businesses exposed female as well as male family members in each generation to the business, the women would acquire the same know-how and feeling for the business. Women who think they might want a career in the family business would do well to take jobs in other firms first so that they can have some sense of their work capabilities as well as capacities, and can have a chance to work out most of their separation issues.

This article has been extracted and modified from Salganicoff, M. (1996). Women in Family Businesses: Challenges and Opportunities. "The Best of Family Business Review (FBR): A Celebration". Family Firm Institute, Inc. Boston, USA. 

Source:ceoonline.com