Whose Story is it Anyway?

Abstract

The role of women in family business is relatively under-investigated. This article illuminates complex relationships in a family business context, putting the family at the heart of the research as opposed to an individual owner-manager. It draws on narrative accounts of establishing a family business, as told by the founders and by the succeeding generation in three family businesses. Some of the existing literature conceptualizes women in family business as marginalized through the forces of patriarchy or paternalism. The narratives presented in this article point to alternative gender discourses and practices, and to evidence of clear resistance to patriarchy. In so doing it begins to identify the conditions under which patriarchy might be challenged in family businesses.