TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– While family firms constitute a highly important component of most countries' economies, and in many countries a sizable portion of these family businesses are owned and managed by women, there has been minimal study of gender issues in family business ownership and management. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap.Design/methodology/approach– The research design was self‐reported survey research, which is the most commonly used methodology in family business research and for small business and entrepreneurship quantitative research.Findings– In contrast to early (pre‐1980) gender comparisons in management and entrepreneurship, and in support of the majority of more recent studies, this investigation found no significant relationships between the gender of family business owner‐managers and ten management characteristic variables in a sample of 593 family businesses in six countries.Originality/value– These findings add to the limited and currently inconclusive body of knowledge regarding gender issues specifically in family business, and more generally in entrepreneurship and management. VL - 1 IS - 2 SN - 1756-6266 DO - 10.1108/17566260910969661 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/17566260910969661 AU - Sonfield Matthew C. AU - Lussier Robert N. PY - 2009 Y1 - 2009/01/01 TI - Gender in family business ownership and management: a six‐country analysis T2 - International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 96 EP - 117 Y2 - 2024/04/26 ER -