Gender Bias at Work in Family Firms, Too

There is talk of a glass ceiling (also called glass cliff) to indicate the difficulties preventing women from rising to key positions in business. Is it the same in family businesses? From an analysis of 112 scientific papers published in leading scientific journals since 1967, carried out with Alessandra Faraudello University of Eastern Piedmont, what emerges is a mixed picture. On the one hand, it seems that women today have to face fewer obstacles, as a result of fast-changing societal values ​​and economic and organizational contexts. In particular, the financial crisis seems to have had a positive impact, forcing family companies to adopt, instead of primogeniture, a form of business succession more based on the skills, ability and merit in selecting and evaluating managers, to enhance and develop social and relational capital. The fact that women are more educated and work with a distinctive style of management and leadership, which is more consistent with the current business and competitive environments, helps encourage their participation in the life of firms. However, negative elements remain. Although more and more women hold key positions in the foundation and development of many family businesses, gender bias is hard to die.

According to recent research conducted in Spain, for example, men have the same likelihood of staying involved in the family enterprise, regardless of company size, while this probability decreases for women as the firm's scale grows. Women also follow less linear career paths and cannot rely on the assistance of business mentors, also in the case SMEs. They are accorded a lower status and have to face harder challenges than men in running the family company. An analysis carried out in 24 countries over a period of eight years shows that women are underrepresented in entrepreneurship and are less likely to become entrepreneurs in those countries where there burden of childcare falls more heavily on the shoulders of women, such as Italy (Thébaud, 2015). With reference to the Peninsula, the results of a research I carried out with Chiara Morelli of the University of Eastern Piedmont on a sample of 550 companies based in the country's North-West show that, while it is true that family companies give more responsibilities to women compared to non-family firms, they are are still less present than men in company roles. The majority of positions in governance and top management are covered by men, whereas, in line with national and international studies, it is mainly the roles of administration and staff management that see a prevalence of women.

The glass ceiling has not yet been broken and the glass cliff remains for women as steep and slippery as ever.