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Abstract

This research examined the relative influence of husbands and wives in decisions concerning several activities that occur in both the home and the business. Ratings by 24 women who with their husbands had recently opened a retail or service establishment indicated that influence was significantly related to (1) setting (wives had more influence at home), (2) activity (wives had most influence in decisions about division of labor), and (3) particular setting-activity combinations. Such a differential pattern of influence may reflect a way of resolving conflicting norms of equality and husband dominance. Additional findings suggest the operation of an equity norm: Wives' influence at home and in the business varied according to the number of hours they worked, and according to whether the business was "gender typed." Qualitative data indicated that couples rarely discussed division of labor in either setting, although this issue was a frequent source of family tension. Two years later, most of the respondents from the 15 firms that survived reported that the business had positively affected their marriages.

Keywords

family business role conflict work-family gender equality women in business

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Close Coupling in Work-Family Relationships: Making and Implementing Decisions in a New Family Business and at Home

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