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The objective of this chapter is to understand the negotiation experience of women in the context of the family business. The study is based on interviews of 12 women in leadership or senior positions in their family firms. This investigation looks at how women overcome negotiation challenges and turn them into opportunities when negotiating in their family enterprises.

The study finds that principal challenges are (a) lack of recognition of legitimacy, (b) lack of negotiation power, and (c) role conflict. The challenges faced by women in negotiations in a family business are consistent with the extant literature. Women in leadership positions in a family business overcome these challenges by adopting strategies that help them handle a specific situation more strategically and enhance their overall negotiation skills. The main strategies adopted by women are (a) forming alliances, (b) showing evidence of competence, (c) formalization of the negotiation processes, (d) negotiating from the perspective of the family and the future, (e) having role models, and finally (f) employing positive stereotypes about women in the negotiation.

The author recommends that family businesses can become more inclusive and empower their female members by grooming them from an early age to become leaders, by formalizing negotiation processes and thereby reducing the influence of personal biases and, by exposing female members of the family, from a young age, to inspiring role models.