Women Leading Family Businesses

Women in leadership roles in family businesses are still not regarded as the norm. Media representations of women CEOs of family firms still emphasize the sensational and unique aspects of their presence at the top, especially with stories about the 'little girl' who became a successor in a family business, the devastated widow who took over her late husband's business and led it to great heights, or the sister who outperformed an older brother in a family owned automobile dealership. Yet women should not be seen as oddities in business, including family business, when in most countries they form slightly more than half the population and where the contribution of family firms to Gross National Product is estimated at 50-60 percent, or even more depending on how family firms are defined.