Introduction

Abstract

The focus of this book is the wealthy family enterprise and the manner in which it shapes gender and class relations. There has been very little systematic sociological inquiry into the wealthy, how they make and conserve their wealth, and in particular the part played by women. Yet according to the popularly held view, the wealth men own and control is a result of their sole efforts. The role played by women is ignored, and the wives of business leaders and family women generally are stereotyped as male trophies and consumers of such wealth. One of the main concerns of this book is to challenge this assumption and popular stereotype. The second concern is to explore where power lies in business family strategies and how it affects the division of labour and the career paths of family kin. This raises the question why women in wealthy entrepreneurial business families, who appear to have considerable power, are unable to exercise that power. In examining these questions, the book places its central focus on the processes of private wealth-formation amongst wealthy families and questions the assumption that there is a simple correlation between male effort and dominance in the ownership and management of wealth. Asking the question whether and in what ways family women play an entrepreneurial role in the business suggests that it is essential to place family women at the centre of the research gaze.