Next generation female family business members encouraged to share their thoughts.
Family Business United is delighted to be a partner on an international research project that looks into the topic of women in family business and more importantly examines bias and discrimination and their impact on women in family enterprises.
The collaborative team on the research project is comprised of several universities and a research-based non-profit including:
- Business Consulting Resources,
- USF/Gellert Family Business Center,
- LMU and its Entrepreneurial Family Business Center, and
- Women Leaders in Family Enterprises 501
- Family Business United
The survey is to be completed by women who are actively involved in their family’s business either as an employee, manager, director, CEO, shareholder, or member of the family council and when defining family, family by marriage or adoption is an acceptable definition to be applied.
Take the survey and share your thoughts here
Plenty of articles have been written about the role of women in family enterprises covering topics such as the fact that for many there is still have a long way to go to catch up with the positions, responsibilities, leadership and control of the family enterprise that their male counterparts have today.
For example, only 24% of family businesses are led by a woman who holds the rank of president or CEO and only a third of family-owned businesses have designated a woman as their successor.
However, it has also been found that the majority of female owned family businesses report high levels of family loyalty and alignment on key issues such as long-term goals, ethos, and pride in the business.
There are also challenges and despite there appearing to be more opportunities for women in family firms, women in family enterprises still must deal with deeply held biases and discriminatory practices that create imposter syndrome, lower work performance and limit progression into leadership roles within their family enterprises.
The survey consists of open-ended responses, Likert scales, and an imposter syndrome assessment. The survey respondent pool will be developed via our research collaborators, as well as organizations that target family business audiences.
As Paul Andrews, Founder and CEO of Family Business United explains, “We are delighted to be collaborating on this important research study that is undoubtedly timely in essence and looks at a topic that is relevant to family firms the world over. Diversity and inclusion are topics that should be top of mind for all business leaders and the objectives of this study are to raise awareness of the instances of bias and discriminatory practices that negatively impact family-owned enterprises and to provide a pathway to help families determine how to operate their family enterprises in a non-biased and gender-neutral way, maximising opportunities for women and increasing the likelihood that women will be able to fulfil their potential within the business too.”
“This is an exciting research project and one that we are proud to be associated with. We are always looking at ways to push the boundaries to identify new conversations supported by real evidence and this will be a great way to uncover the realities that are being faced by women in family organisations today. We look forward to seeing and sharing the findings in due course too and encourage as many of the women in our family business community to participate in the survey to add their voice as part of the conversation too,” concludes Paul.
Take the survey and share your thoughts here
Responses are obviously treated in full confidence, non-attributed and participants are able to complete the survey anonymously if they wish. Full results and the findings of the research will be made available on various platforms, including www.famailybusinessunited.com in due course too.
