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Within the association of women entrepreneurs (Verband deutscher Unternehmerinnen VdU) founded in West Germany in 1954, leadership succession strategies quickly became centre-stage. To challenge the obvious exclusion of women from succession in family business was a precondition for the recruitment of members who had to own and to direct their enterprise. The initiatives created to improve women's prospects in leadership succession made the continuity of family business their first argument. This principal esteem of family business could not be translated into supportive measures, because the conceptual contradictions were ignored and women were still primarily held responsible for the continuity of the family, while their responsibility for the continuity of business was conceived as exceptional. The analysis of succession strategies employed in the enterprises of leading women from the VdU confirms this interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]