Rural feminism, err, what's that?

I teach in a rural community and a large proportion of my pupils come from farming families. Most of the girls are thinking about what they want to do when they leave school as they know they will be going out to work and then "helping out" on a farm in their spare time. Pretty much all of the boys from farming families know they are going to inherit the farm and all they ever talk about is their farm.

I even have a colleague who openly stated that her aim in life is to meet and marry a farmer so she can be a farmer's wife. She's a teacher, and a bloody good one, but she wants to give it up so she can marry a farmer, do all the cooking, cleaning, childcare, accounts, etc as well as do her share of the milking and manual work on the farm. I think it's crazy, especially since she has always done just as much on the family farm as her younger brother but there's never been any mention of her inheriting as the eldest, no, it's all about him because he's the boy (out of 5 children, the 4 girls have all been encouraged to find their own farmer ) and he left school at 16 to work on the farm. None of the girls were allowed the choice about going to work on the farm, they were all expected to continue studying and make a living outside of farming until the can marry a farmer.

This is really interesting. I live and grew up in a rural area and I don't recognise what you are all describing.

Perhaps because round here it is small crofts?

I know quite a few single women who are farmers (young and old) and women's input into the everyday farmlife isn't seen as less important/useful ime. The opposite in fact, in several cases it's the women who have the real knowledge and skill with plants or animals or certain jobs and this is acknowledged in the family. Maybe I just know a lot of cool people?!

In the farming family I know well, there was never any question that the farm wouldn't go to the son - which I believe is sexist. The daughters have never been intrested in working the farm, which is one of the reasons given for the farm going to their brother, but then again, they had no incentive to get involved as they knew they'd never get the farm.

But what has happened is that the women have all had significant amounts of cash, and I believe will be directors of the business. So while the set up is still sexist IMO, the parents have taken steps to make things more equable.

I wonder if technological changes are/will make a difference? Most of my extended family are/were farmers and I work with them. There's been huge changes in the amount of paperwork needed for farming in the last decade alone, whereas in 2001 paperwork related to FMD had to include 'I have read this form or had it read to me' as so many farmers in certain very traditional areas were almost illiterate. Now having someone educated who handles much of the paperwork is a necessity.

Also I dont know how much physical strength is needed for most farmers now, but I know London bus drivers are now 10% female since power steering became standard - it might make a difference in arable at least?

Yeah, I'd like to know the stats too. There are a few farmers on MN, I think.

I'd be really interested to know how many single women are farmers, as opposed to being half of a couple who farm, because farming still seems to be such a family industry.

True buffy. I wonder what the statistics of how many female farmers there are read like. I know if I go to cereals for example I stick out like a sore thumb.

An not Iran - sorry about my spelling and short
Answers - it's difficult on my phone.

Quite.

The thing that bugged me was every time he told that little anecdote, his wife would grin as if it was the funniest thing ever. I found it really difficult TBH.

Live fast - I think that is more Iran issue about what supermarkets are prepared to pay rather than feminism.

The rules on inheritance in my opinion have nothing to do with it. A farmer can leave his assets to whoever he wants.

I disagree that splitting the estate up is an excuse. Many family farms I know would not last if they had to be split. Mine, nor my husbands would.

I do agree that there is inherent sexism in farming - but the way forward is to challenge it. The first time my dh expected dinner on the table was the last. It went in the bin.

Btw, my ex's mum would see herself the way star describes it, absolutely at the centre of things, not downtrodden at all, etc. etc.

She had very premature baby twins who nearly died, and her husband still thinks it's hilarious to explain that the only nappy he ever changed was when the nurse at the hospital insisted he needed to do it. After that, she did it all. Cos that's what women do, right?

My ex is a farmer. Everyone I met through him was massively sexist. I sort of hoped this was unusual, and still hope so.

Yes, his mum helped his dad, but it was always explained in those terms - she 'helped' while he did it. And while my ex was expected to keep coming back to his dad's and helping out, his sister was seen as less capable and less useful.

Something that drove me mad was that the whole family had absolutely no respect for anything the women did 'on the side' of farming, whether that was women going out and earning money, or my ex's sister studying, or anything like that. They were still constantly the butt of stupid jokes about a women's place being in the kitchen, and they were expected constantly to work around the men who decided when to do everything. I really do think there was a big issue, at least in that community.

I don't think it is just to do with who inherits what - it is to do with attitudes, which change slowly. IMO this is why people need to be taught more about healthy relationships at school.

I think I was going somewhere with that but I completely forgot what I was saying

interesting

in Italy you cannot leave one child out of your will, the land has to be divided up so all the children get a fair share and apparently this causes really serious headaches - eg if your slice isn't enough to provide you with a living you have to work collaboratively with siblings to work the land as a whole, but they can sell their bit and it seems confusing and not all that practicable unless everyone wants the same thing for the future of that land

I knew a woman who called herself a farmer's wife. Her and her husband ran the farm together and divided the work equally, so wasn't she a farmer too? Defining yourself by your husband's job doesn't sit well with me.

Interesting that the Royals are breaking with tradition and if Royal baby is a girl she will be first-in-line for the throne, not lose her place when / if son is born. I wonder if the aristocracy will follow suit in the next few years, and even farmers.

for two years (kindle fire issues)

Yes, there are inheritence issues, but my friends who are farmers wives all work outside the farm to help make ends meet. They are better educated than their DHs, do the farm paperwork and are hardly down trodden.

And no they don't clean and work in tesco. They have had good jobs in local banks and the local local goverment. They stayed on and did buisness studies betec at the FE FEfor teo years, there DH's left school.

And those statements explicitly cover only the Royal succession. If other titles or estates are entailed in the male line, they will be unaffected.

Exactly. So, to illustrate, if the Cambridges have a girl, she will (likely), be queen; yet she won't inherit the Duchy of Cornwall, as this must still pass to a male.

Nope, actual legislation hasn't yet been brought forward.

But there are occasions when retrospective legislation is permissible, and this would fit that category, as the intent has been agreed and widely publicised and HMQ and CHOGM have already up indicated approval. It'll be tidied up with a new law at some point.

I think it's a pity that it wasn't done in the Parliamentary time available before the expected Cambridge birth (shows where it is in the priority list of the legislature) but the delay won't mean any difference in effect when they do get round to it.

The law on Royal primogeniture hasn't actually changed yet. They've made various statements about intent, so it can be done retrospectively.

And those statements explicitly cover only the Royal succession. If other titles or estates are entailed in the male line, they will be unaffected.

That's why I was wondering about France, where property must be divided between all children. Estates are split (and then sometimes reformed via buying out) all the time. Anyone know if this has led to a different gender balance in farming there?