KENNESAW, Ga. | Aug 7, 2026

August 7, 2026

Eric R. Kushins, PhD, SHRM-SCP, CSSBB

Much of the conversation about women in family business focuses on succession, leadership, or work-life balance. While those are important, my colleagues and I have explored a more fundamental question: How are women's roles in family businesses changing, and what does that mean for business success?

In one study, we analyzed more than 70 years of labor market data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We found a dramatic decline in women serving as unpaid labor in family firms. As women have gained greater educational and career opportunities, family businesses can no longer assume talented women will contribute simply because they are family. Instead, attracting and retaining women increasingly requires meaningful leadership opportunities, fair compensation, and intentional inclusion.

In another study, we examined whether family businesses provide a better environment for women entrepreneurs than nonfamily firms. Using data from the U.S. Census Annual Business Survey, we found that women-owned family firms consistently outperform women-owned nonfamily firms. Family businesses appear to offer unique resources—including trust, mentoring, flexibility, and long-term commitment—that help women overcome barriers common in entrepreneurship.

Most recently, we explored why these differences may exist. We argue that family firms often possess a broader cultural repertoire for recognizing women as legitimate leaders because family members have historically worked alongside women in multiple roles.

Together, these studies suggest that the competitive advantage of today's family businesses is no longer inexpensive family labor. It is the ability to create environments where talented women can lead, contribute, and shape the long-term success of the business.

About the Expert: Eric R. Kushins, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Management at Berry College, where he researches family business, workplace diversity, and organizational culture. His work examines how family dynamics and diversity influence leadership, governance, succession, and the long-term success of family enterprises.

Family businesses measure success in more than financial terms. They also value the identity, relationships, reputation, and sense of continuity connected to the enterprise. Researchers call this nonfinancial value socioemotional wealth.

One way to better understand socioemotional wealth is to consider the many ways women contribute to a family business. They may hold formal roles as owners, executives, managers, or financial leaders. Additionally, they may strengthen customer relationships, preserve family values, mentor younger family members, or help the family navigate difficult conversations. Their diverse roles often demonstrate how value is created not only through financial performance, but also through the relationships, culture, and continuity that help family businesses endure.

Socioemotional wealth depends on contributions that are both visible and less visible. Women often illustrate this balance, serving in formal leadership, ownership, and operational roles while also strengthening relationships, preserving family values, mentoring the next generation, and helping maintain the continuity that defines a family enterprise. Some of these contributions are reflected in formal titles and responsibilities. Others are less visible, yet they play an equally important role in preserving the family's socioemotional wealth.

As family businesses grow, preserving socioemotional wealth requires intentional stewardship. Families often invest significant time in developing business expertise and preparing future leaders. They can also benefit from recognizing and cultivating the many ways women and other family members help strengthen relationships, reinforce shared values, and preserve the unique identity that distinguishes a family business across generations.

Protecting socioemotional wealth is not about preserving every tradition. It is about understanding what makes the business uniquely family and intentionally stewarding those qualities alongside financial success. Recognizing the many ways family members contribute, whether through leadership, operations, governance, or relationship-building, helps ensure those strengths continue to support the business for generations to come.

Want to learn more? Women Can Help Family Firms Innovate - but Socioemotional Factors Matter

Over the next two decades, economists estimate that more than $100 trillion in assets will transfer from Baby Boomers to younger generations in what has become known as the Great Wealth Transfer. While much of the conversation has focused on inherited wealth and financial assets, family businesses face an equally significant transition: the transfer of leadership, decision-making, and stewardship.

Women have long served as founders, owners, CEOs, and influential leaders in family enterprises. Today, that leadership is expanding. More daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and spouses are building careers inside and outside their family companies, leading teams, managing operations, serving on boards, and developing the financial and strategic expertise needed to guide increasingly complex enterprises.

For many family businesses, this is not a future trend. It is today's reality. The Great Wealth Transfer is accelerating an evolution that is already well underway.

The most successful family enterprises recognize that the Great Wealth Transfer is as much about preparing people as it is transferring assets. As leadership transitions accelerate, they are investing broadly in the next generation by creating meaningful opportunities for family members to gain operating experience, participate in governance, build ownership knowledge, and develop the judgment required to lead a multigenerational business.

Expanding leadership opportunities today creates greater flexibility and stronger succession options tomorrow. By developing every capable family member, businesses strengthen their leadership bench and ensure they have the talent, perspective, and experience needed to guide the enterprise into its next chapter.

The Great Wealth Transfer will reshape ownership across family enterprises. At the same time, a profound leadership transition is already underway. Families that intentionally develop their full leadership pipeline (recognizing those already leading today as well as those preparing to lead tomorrow) will be well positioned to preserve not only their business, but also the values, relationships, and legacy that define it for generations to come.

Want to learn more? Women in Family Business Leadership: Breaking Barriers and Building Success