The Institute for Family Enterprising Blog brings you the latest in events, research and thoughts from within the nexus of family business and entrepreneurship. We will also use authors and findings from our major research arm - the STEP Project.
Do family businesses have gender issues like other firms? I actually seldom hear it discussed. Are family beliefs about sons, daughters, and spouses, or a father's view about women in the business considered "gender issues?" I thought they were just "family issues."
Many family businesses are in what typically are considered "male dominated industries" - construction, hardware, distributions, car wash, trucking, manufacturing. In most of the companies we have looked at, there were strong views and decisions as to what positions were appropriate for women, and most defaulted to the male beliefs about women's ability and opportunity. As a result, many multi generational businesses have a default leadership pipeline continually leading to male successors, but we find that this significantly constrained opportunities for both family and non-family women in leadership positions.
These gender discoveries directly impacted business decisions and practices. Gender biases demotivated women, stifled the thinking of leaders about the role of women in the business, how to attract and retain women, who their customers were, and their marketing and sales strategy. Further, they created tensions and at times conflict in both the family and the business, constrained the leadership development process and limited the candidates pool. Combined, these gender biases significantly limited the company's potential for growth and the ability to move beyond the small mom and pop mindset.
Family business leaders need to more actively address their gender issues.
Consider that you may have some gender issue constraints on your organization.
Ask your daughters and other women to give you their views on the role of women as owners and managers in your business.
Increase the level of professionalism in the company, especially in the human resource area to address these gender issues.
Posted by Timothy Habbershon on January 10, 2008 13:01 | link
