Women play a key role in agriculture – so why are they often unable to own land?

When we expect of a farmer, we often picture a man. But in reality, women contribute 49% to real farm income.

It isn’t nearly women working as farmers an increasing number of often. Maintaining agricultural activities normally also relies on women working off the farm, especially in times of drought.

Yet women often don’t own farmland. And when it comes to who gets the family farm in succession planning, daughters, moms and daughters-in-law are likely to be ignored.

There are established legal safeguards that girls can use to challenge this. But our latest research states that girls are often perceived as a threat to the continuity of the family farm and attempts are made to deliberately exclude them from it.

Australian agriculture is just suffering as a result. To solve this problem, some stubborn attitudes could have to change.

Passing the family farm from generation to generation

The means of deciding who will take over the family farm is generally known as farm transition and succession. Passing the land from one generation to the subsequent is highest importance for farming families.

Farmers see themselves as custodians of the land, constructing on the work of previous generations for the advantage of their descendants. Owning agricultural land is tied to identity, social standing, culture, and community.

Transferring a profitable farming business often means keeping it together quite than dividing it up between siblings. However, farmland prices shot upwhich suggests that for a lot of families, succession planning could be a multi-million dollar issue.

Aside from the plain emotional toll, this also makes it incredibly difficult for siblings who want to take over the farm to buy out the others. It may also mean that siblings who don’t take over the farm will find yourself freely giving an increasing number of money.

As you would possibly expect, this has made succession planning on the farm big business. Lawyers, accountants and business consultants are being tapped to help farm families negotiate a way forward.

So who gets the farm?

Sons, mostly. Latest data suggests that daughters take over the family farm only 10 percent of the time. But because these data are quite old, a large upcoming study will assess whether this remains to be the case.

The default position of most Australian farming families is that the farmer is equal to the person – their sons are seen as one of the best placed to take over the farm. They are often socialised into this role from birth.

But this view could be very outdated. As agriculture becomes more skilled, entrepreneurial and technology-orientedthe parable that this requires brutal male physical strength is losing its validity.

Fortunately, gender norms in agriculture are is slowly moving. Although we still have a good distance to go, daughters are increasingly being considered farmers and are less likely to be ignored when dividing family wealth.

The “terrible” daughter-in-law-a village girl

Few are as wary of farm succession politics because the daughter-in-law. Yet their work on and off the farm, and their roles as caregivers and community members, are crucial to the reproduction of farm families, the family farm, and rural communities.

Women have turn into less accepting deprivation of land ownership due to changes in education levels, family law and gender norms.

But for the generation of landowners they are still often perceived as a threat to the continuity of the family farm.

Attempts by a daughter-in-law to begin the succession planning process, to challenge allegations of underpaying her partner or herself, or to seek a profession outside of the agricultural areas can be seen as challenges to the standard farming family.

This is despite the indisputable fact that he’s often simply trying to provide reassurance to his immediate family.

Intentionally blocked

For a while now, Australian family law has covered each cohabiting and married couples.

In the event of a divorce or breakdown of a partnership, the court has the suitable to determine how property – for instance farms – is split between the partners.

In this fashion, an equitable division is sought, quite than assets being viewed as being held in a 50/50 split. It can take into consideration the needs of every partner and their financial and non-financial contributions, equivalent to childcare.

Despite this, our tests found that generations of landowners use farm inheritance processes to protect the continuity of the farm from claims by their daughters-in-law.

This includes delaying the transfer of the farm to their adult children so that the daughter-in-law cannot make a claim in the event of a divorce. Family business structures are also used that quarantine the farm’s assets, equivalent to binding financial agreements.

But the collective marginalization of the farmer’s daughter-in-law and the exclusion of daughters from succession only harms the industry. In their attempts to maintain the establishment of gender relations, many family farms are not preparing for the changing business and social environment.

Women have been graduating from agricultural colleges in equal numbers to men for over twenty years. Female farmers are found have a high level of entrepreneurship, innovation and powerful sustainable development values.

How can farming families higher plan for succession?

Food Security and the Agricultural Industry in Australia depend about how to do succession well. It has to be an ongoing conversation with the entire family, supported by professionals with different skills.

This signifies that women can now not be deliberately excluded. As one skilled in our study commented:

Plenty of these girls have sacrificed a lot and… they are incredibly intelligent and in fact could make a huge contribution to the success of those businesses if they (the older generation) would put their fear aside, be clear about what they are afraid of, take care of it and move on.

If the industry wants to thrive in the twenty first century, a change of approach shall be essential.