Becoming manager in a family firm : A gendered path

• Women in business have been often described as invisible (Allen & Langowitz, 2003) resulting in calls for research to investigate women’s contributions to family firms (FF) (Martinez Jimenez, 2009). Female employees can legitimately accuse the existence of “glass ceiling” that prevent their advancement in the managerial ranks (Powell, 1999). Compared with male employees in equivalent positions, female employees may find that their perspectives are overlooked and their contributions devalued (Ridgeway et al., 2009).Our interest is in better understanding this discrimination and possible ways to change it. How do education, job tenure, job category and industry knowledge impact on the probability of being promoted to managerial positions in FF and non FF? How does gender moderate this probability?To answer these questions we employee a mixed method approach. In the quantitative part, we adopt a longitudinal dataset produced by Statistics Sweden with annual observations on all Swedish privately held firms, Swedish inhabitants, and family ties. This allow us to reconstruct the career path of all the employees that received a promotion to a managerial position in a Swedish company in the last 10 years. Our unique dataset allows us to match their salaries and career development recognizing the existence of gender discrimination. These results will be illustrated through a qualitative part, with interesting cases offering an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon.Our results confirm the existence of gender discrimination, for example in the salary paid by Swedish companies. Understanding the impact of educational choices, job categories and family choices on career paths for men and women, offers fundamental insights for managers, HR specialists, and policy makers. Moreover, it provides a unique opportunity for this interactive workshop to discuss the family business values, and how to develop a stronger family business responsibility against gender discriminations.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

family business

gender

management

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)