Epouses et petites entreprises. Permanence du XVIII^eau XX^esiècle

Abstract

Ce travail essaie de cerner d'un point de vue historique le rôle de l'épouse dans la petite entreprise familiale du XVIII e au XX e siècle. Pour cela, nous avons travaillé sur 307 dossiers de faillites issus des archives départementales de Loire Atlantique et d'Indre-et-Loire. Après un retour sur les difficultés méthodologiques inhérentes à ce travail, les auteurs mettent en évidence la division du travail au sein du couple en montrant le rôle de l'épouse. Ils reviennent notamment sur l'étonnante constance des fonctions qu'assure l'épouse quels que soient les types d'entreprises concernées.

Women and power: a theoretical approach using the example of copreneurial businesses

“…Labardin and Robic (2008) go further, and claim that this pattern is so favourable to family businesses that they can be considered as "the guarantor of their creation and their sustainability". More generally, Brannon et al (2013) point out that the more the behaviour of members of the family business conforms to what is expected of them, the more their association is likely to be successful.…”

“…The traditional model corresponds to a social phenomenon that defines certain roles, and therefore certain tasks as "masculine" and others as "feminine" (Labardin and Robic, 2008). Two major bodies of theory attempt to explain how this stereotyped social model has emerged.…”

“…This invisibility is consistently seen in small family businesses (Labardin and Robic, 2008), particularly among traders, artisans and independent workers (Auvolat and Mayère, 1984;Zarca, 1990;Richomme, 2000;Bertaux-Wiame, 2004). The most persistent stereotype is the image of the female copreneur who takes care of the accounts in a back room (Dumas, 1998).…”