ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the rich and complex thought that has been developed in the French-speaking world, with the aim to present the most comprehensive portrait possible of research at the intersection of gender studies and family business succession, to advance the global agenda. In different parts of the world, family laws have historically treated women, men as non-equals in couples, making it impossible for married women to own, inherit or manage a commercial company. In France, for more than a century, married women have been considered as legally incapacitated adults who could not undertake any juridical act or financial transaction without their husband’s authorisation. The rise of the nuclear family as a model and the individualisation of societies are main drivers of transformation in terms of family business succession. In Western societies, dual-career couples have gradually become the norm, women gaining independence with regard to enlarged family systems in which they were previously jointly in charge of multigenerational family needs.
