Balancing the Business of Family: Family Business Daughters' Tensions Between Motherhood and Work

Author: Day Angela M.  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 1545-6870

Source: Atlantic Journal of Communication, Vol.21, Iss.3, 2013-07, pp. : 125-148

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Abstract

This research merges approaches from communication and family business scholarship to examine work life gender issues. Using dialectical relationship theory, it explores how family business daughters experience the overlap between family and business that occurs in a family business. It specifically investigates the relational tensions that family business daughters experience at an external (social) level. This study suggests that the family business founder's values create a family business culture that provides flexible polices for family emergencies, but is less accommodating for family business daughters who are mothers. As a result, family business daughters experienced relational tensions regarding motherhood that reflect the separate spheres ideologies that privilege the division of domestic and business concerns.