Abstract Little research has explored the underlying mechanisms that may enable or inhibit women leaders to be effective. Practice theory, rooted in sociology, looks at the interplay between structure and behavior while addressing the role of individual agency to help understand the formation, reproduction and changes in culture. Nonfamily firms, having limited exposure and knowledge to a multiplicity of roles that women can take on, will categorize women leaders myopically in a traditional gender-stereotypical framework, creating doubt and conflict and undermining her ability to lead. According to Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction, this symbolic violence will result in nonfamily firm women leaders’ failure to be seen as legitimate, diminishing their ability to positively impact their firms. On the other hand, family firms, which have historically engaged women in a variety of family and business roles, have an expansive cultural repertoire of knowledge, skills and symbols to construct new “strategies of action.” Based on Swidler’s cultural toolkit model, this vast cultural knowledge enables family firms to legitimize women’s leadership roles, providing women with robust latitude and support in decision making and firm impact. The result is that women leaders of family firms reap higher levels of firm performance compared to their nonfamily firm counterparts.