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Women Leading Family Businesses, Mary Barrett

Mary Barrett

Women in leadership roles in family businesses are still not regarded as the norm. Media representations of women CEOs of family firms still emphasize the sensational and unique aspects of their presence at the top, especially with stories about the 'little girl' who became a successor in a family business, the devastated widow who took over her late husband's business and led it to great heights, or the sister who outperformed an older brother in a family owned automobile dealership. Yet women should not be seen as oddities in business, including family business, when in most countries they form slightly …