Intergenerational farm succession: How does gender fit?
Introduction
Despite the enduring dominance of family farming globally (Graeub et al., 2016) the process of intergenerational farm transfer is relatively under researched (Chiswell, 2018). While women’s participation in education is increasing globally and their roles in the wider agricultural workforce are changing (Mukhamedova and Wegerich, 2018), there has been limited attention to what this means for the transfer of ownership and control on family farms. Across western countries, the common pattern is that women do not own farmland (Cush et al., 2018). The unequal distribution of wealth and assets in the farming context has implications for women’s empowerment and ongoing financial security. From the most recent research done on farm transfers in Australia, daughters were the nominated successor for the family farm in only 10% of cases (Barclay et al., 2007, Voyce, 2007). With women making up 50% of students enrolled in agricultural degrees in Australia for the past two decades (Department of Education and Training, 2018), their share of the agricultural workforce has increased to 30% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019). At the same time, with the average size of Australian farms growing, there is increasing reliance on services beyond the farm gate and women’s representation in these roles is growing.
Although several studies have investigated either legal questions of inheritance or women’s representation in agriculture, there appears to be little work that addresses the intersection of these factors. Previous studies have reported on patterns in farm ownership (Pritchard et al., 2012) and recognition of women’s substantial contributions to agriculture as a sector. Elix and Lambert (1998) estimated women contributed to 48% of real farm income and a decade late this was reported to be 49% (Sheridan and Haslam McKenzie, 2009). Despite this quantification of their contributions, it remains the case that women are underrepresented and undervalued in positions of rural leadership and decision making (Invisible Farmer, 2018). Other projects have investigated the topic of will-making and estate planning writ large, drawing attention to the interpersonal and structural dynamics that influence the intergenerational transfer of assets (White et al., 2015). This work has not addressed farm succession as a socio-legal construct that may impact gender differences in income equality and access to wealth. The question we seek to answer is ‘what role does gender play in intergenerational farm succession practices of family farming enterprises?’.
In the first part of the paper, we briefly canvas the wider literature on gender and the family farm as a business. Following this, we present a systematic literature review (SLR) of peer reviewed articles about farm succession internationally (including Australia) from 2000, identifying common themes through content analysis, coupled with a doctrinal analysis of Australian case law using the systematic review methodology developed by (Tilse et al., 2015b). We found limited attention has been paid to gender and farm succession in the Australian context and there are common themes emerging from the wider literature on farm succession which provide insights which may help inform the farm advisory community.
The common themes identified from the analysis of the 60 papers are: the changing roles on farm; the nature of succession processes; farming as inherently masculine; and the priority of keeping the family farm intact. Our analysis of Australian case law suggests that challenges to legal arrangements for farm succession are usually made on the grounds of unfair distribution of assets between siblings (adequacy of provision) rather than a claim to farm inheritance, and these cases rarely rest on accusations of gender discrimination.
Our systematic literature review synthesizes a disparate literature on family farm succession. We make three contributions to the gender and family farm succession literature. First, for 24 of the studies on farm succession, there was no recognition of gender warranting attention. Gender remains an unexamined dimension for more than 40% the studies reported. Second, keeping the family farm intact appears to trump gender equality when it comes to farm succession decisions. Third, the deeply embedded gender norms about who can be a ‘farmer’ continue to inflect succession patterns, limiting opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women. It seems at the intersection of the ‘doing’ of gender and intergenerational succession on Australian farms, traditional patterns of unequal distribution of land ownership are reinforced. By making visible the often hidden gender dynamics of the succession process and the consequences of failures to deal proactively with succession planning, we seek to open up the farm succession debate to enable better informed industry and policy initiatives.
Section snippets
Gender, the family business and family farm
Succession is the transfer of managerial control of both physical and intangible assets between generations (Chiswell, 2018). The traditional implications of gender on succession in family businesses is well recognized (Martin, 2001). Between 2000 and 2008 and 2009–2017, publications on women in family businesses more than tripled, pointing to a growing interest in how gender informs succession (Sentuti et al., 2017). The broader family business literature finds that daughters are overlooked
Socio-legal dynamics underpinning inheritance
There have been a range of investigations into the socio-legal dynamics that underpin and influence inheritance, including choice of beneficiaries (Dekker and Howard, 2006), patterns of will making (Tilse et al., 2015b) and subsequent estate contestations (White et al., 2015). These studies have highlighted the strong social norms that accompany will making decisions in Australia. Testators routinely apply a narrow definition of ‘family’ in deciding how assets will be bequeathed and there
Method
Our study consisted of two parts. The first was a systematic literature review (SLR) of international research on gender and farm succession, seeking to identify whether succession patterns are reflecting the changes we are seeing in women’s roles in the paid workforce more widely. The second part was a systematic sampling of legal databases to see how farm succession has been addressed in the Australian legal system conducted by the third author.
For the SLR, we limited our review to papers
Findings from the systematic literature review
While assembling and organizing the materials it soon became clear from the breadth of journals covered that questions of farm succession were being framed from many disciplines, drawing on diverse theories and concepts, and addressed through a range of qualitative and quantitative methods. Of the 60 articles, 12 employed quantitative methods, 31 employed qualitative methods, nine used a mixed methods approach, four were conceptual, one used legal analysis, one was an autoethnography and two
Results from legal databases
Due to the limited use of gender identifiers in the case title and summary, the systematic sampling of the legal databases by keyword search for the key variable of ‘gender’ proved to be an unsuitable approach for uncovering the range of gender dynamics that might influence challenges to farm succession through will making and property settlement. Indeed, where surnames or property names were used, gender was only searchable when words such as ‘wife’ or ‘daughter’ appeared in the case
Discussion
Our research question informing this article was ‘what role does gender play in intergenerational farm succession practices of family farming enterprises?’ This was prompted by the recognition that farm succession matters in the distribution of wealth, and that internationally, women are less likely to own land (UN-Women, 2017). In Australia, there is evidence of women continuing to be disadvantaged by farm succession decisions where farming sons continue to receive the largest share of family
Conclusion
The aim of this paper was to explore family farm succession practices to shed light on gender equality and the empowerment of rural women. In Australia, it seems succession disputes are either largely resolved through mediation, or never attempted, as the family farm remaining intact trumps gender in succession planning. As we investigated the international literature and existing case law in Australia, the pervasive view of the importance of the farm remaining intact and the nature of
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Alison Sheridan: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft, supervision. Lucie Newsome: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Tanya Howard: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Andrew Lawson: Writing - review & editing. Skye Saunders: Writing – review & editing.
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