IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pab/wphaei/15.01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The hidden role of women in family firms

Author

Listed:
  • Paula Rodríguez-Modroño

    (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Universidad Pablo de Olavide)

  • Lina Gálvez-Muñoz

    (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Universidad Pablo de Olavide)

  • Astrid Agenjo-Calderón

    (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)

Abstract

Women have historically played an important hidden role in family firms, and a great deal of research is now shedding light on this role. In spite of the more formal nature of their work in the present day, still a considerable volume of women’s contributions remains invisible to official statistics. This study, based on interviews with over 500 women in small and medium family firms, brings this informal work into view, quantifying it in terms of hours worked and monetary value, exploring the reasons for its informality and examining the risks and precariousness it entails.

Suggested Citation

  • Paula Rodríguez-Modroño & Lina Gálvez-Muñoz & Astrid Agenjo-Calderón, 2015. "The hidden role of women in family firms," Working Papers 15.01, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, revised Dec 2015.
  • Handle: RePEc:pab:wphaei:15.01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.upo.es/serv/bib/wphaei/haei1501.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nancy Folbre & Julie A. Nelson, 2000. "For Love or Money--Or Both?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 123-140, Fall.
    2. Bina Agarwal, 1997. "''Bargaining'' and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond the Household," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1-51.
    3. Sara Horrell & Jane Humphries, 1995. "Women's labour force participation and the transition to the male-breadwinner family, 1790-1865," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 48(1), pages 89-117, February.
    4. Frishkoff, Patricia A. & Brown, Bonnie M., 1993. "Women on the move in family business," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 66-70.
    5. Overbeke, Kathyann Kessler & Bilimoria, Diana & Perelli, Sheri, 2013. "The dearth of daughter successors in family businesses: Gendered norms, blindness to possibility, and invisibility," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 201-212.
    6. Susan Himmelweit, 1995. "The discovery of “unpaid work”: the social consequences of the expansion of “work”," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 1-19.
    7. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1, March.
    8. Susan Himmelweit, 1995. "The Discovery of 'Unpaid Work': the social consequences of the expansion of 'work'," Open Discussion Papers in Economics 6, The Open University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zdravka, Todorova, 2009. "Employer of Last Resort Policy and Feminist Economics: Social Provisioning and Socialization of Investment," MPRA Paper 16240, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Leanne Roncolato & Alex Roomets, 2020. "Who will change the “baby?” Examining the power of gender in an experimental setting," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 823-852, September.
    3. James Foreman-Peck & Peng Zhou, 2021. "Fertility versus productivity: a model of growth with evolutionary equilibria," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 1073-1104, July.
    4. Timothy W. Guinnane, 2011. "The Historical Fertility Transition: A Guide for Economists," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 589-614, September.
    5. Julie A. Nelson, 2013. "Gender and caring," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 5, pages 62-76, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Malapit, Hazel Jean L., 2012. "Why do spouses hide income?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 584-593.
    7. Alexandra Peralta, 2022. "The role of men and women in agriculture and agricultural decisions in Vanuatu," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 59-80, January.
    8. Schneebaum, Alyssa & Mader, Katharina, 2013. "The gendered nature of intra-household decision making in and across Europe," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 157, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    9. Ailsa McKay, 2001. "Rethinking Work and Income Maintenance Policy: Promoting Gender Equality Through a Citizens' Basic Income," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 97-118.
    10. Tien Manh Vu, 2019. "Home Appliances And Gender Gap Of Time Spent On Unpaid Housework: Evidence Using Household Data From Vietnam," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(01), pages 97-114, March.
    11. Sarah-Louise Ruder & Sophia Rose Sanniti, 2019. "Transcending the Learned Ignorance of Predatory Ontologies: A Research Agenda for an Ecofeminist-Informed Ecological Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-29, March.
    12. Susan Donath, 2000. "The Other Economy: A Suggestion for a Distinctively Feminist Economics," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 115-123.
    13. Zhongwu Li & Fengzhi Lu, 2024. "The power of Internet: from the perspective of women’s bargaining power," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Begoña Álvarez & Daniel Miles, 2006. "Husbands’ housework time: does wives’ paid employment make a difference?," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 30(1), pages 5-31, January.
    15. Timothy W. Guinnane & Susana Martinez Rodriguez, 2012. "For Every Law, a Loophole: Flexibility in the Menu of Spanish Business Forms, 1886-1936," Working Papers 1012, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    16. Youssouf Merouani & Faustine Perrin, 2022. "Gender and the long-run development process. A survey of the literature [Rethinking age heaping: A cautionary tale from nineteenth-century Italy]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(4), pages 612-641.
    17. Mohammad Amin & Asif M. Islam & Augusto Lopez‐Claros, 2021. "Absent laws and missing women: Can domestic violence legislation reduce female mortality?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 2113-2132, November.
    18. David Brennan, 2006. "Defending The Indefensible? Culture'S Role In The Productive/Unproductive Dichotomy," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 403-425.
    19. Clémentine Sadania, 2016. "Working and Women’s Empowerment in the Egyptian Household: The Type of Work and Location Matter," Working Papers halshs-01525220, HAL.
    20. Campopiano, Giovanna & De Massis, Alfredo & Rinaldi, Francesca Romana & Sciascia, Salvatore, 2017. "Women’s involvement in family firms: Progress and challenges for future research," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 200-212.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    North-South; growth model; innovation assimilation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • M20 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - General
    • N80 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - General, International, or Comparative

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pab:wphaei:15.01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Publicación Digital - UPO (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dmupoes.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.