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Original poster

Rural feminism, err, what's that?

59 replies

LiveFastDieOld2 · 07/07/2013 08:23

I don't think I have ever heard the word feminism spoken in my rural backwater. We seem to be stuck in the Middle Ages with little potential for change. Virtually all the money and assets (very much not the same thing BTW in farming) are controlled by men with zero interest in giving up male control.

I am the only girl in my immediate friendship group who will inherit the family farm! All around me its going to be an older brother or a younger brother who will gain control of the farm. All my friends will get will be a few, sometimes a very few, tens of thousands of pounds in cash while the sons will inherit hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds of assets.

How much publicity does this injustice receive? Almost none!

Another problem is the extreme isolation of many girls in rural areas. If I'm working on Home Farm the only ladies I will see in a day will be my Mother, my younger sister and the two grooms. Once a month when I'm off seeing the tenant farmers it is slightly better because it is the Farmers' Wives that usually do the paperwork. The sons usually go the Fathers to market once a week, the daughters seldom if ever go.

How can the feminist movement move forward against this background.

OP posts:
BuffytheReasonableFeminist · 07/07/2013 09:24

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Original poster
LiveFastDieOld2 · 07/07/2013 09:05

I'm sure that I feature in the long term plans of several local farmers. Marry their son off to me and gain control in a reverse take over. Farmer "controls" son who "controls" me. Little do they know!Smile

OP posts:
Original poster
LiveFastDieOld2 · 07/07/2013 09:00

Yes Lilysystem there are things to do in the country. And I do them but all the time I'm aware there are young faces I hardly ever see because they are slaving away, usually on the smaller tenant farms.
The "it will destroy the business to split it" is used to justify (usually) male children getting vastly more of the nett assets than the girls. But when you really dig into the figures there is often a way round it if you want to promote gender equality.

OP posts:
AuntieStella · 07/07/2013 08:59

Unless you're talking about a landed estate which may inherited only in certain ways (male primogeniture) usually with a title alongside, then it's a parental choice about who to leave things to.

It's hard to decide to break up an estate, and I can see the attraction in keeping it unified, but that probably does mean a very uneven potential inheritance.

Is there a similar imbalance between men and women running farms in France? I am wondering how far inheritance is relevant, as the system is so different there. And instead it might be down to how farming families raise their girls and boys.

lilystem · 07/07/2013 08:54

Good point bad skiing mum - women have to make sure they are getting what they are worth. Eg I only agreed to run the farm once I was clear on inheritance. When discussing my future with dh before kids came along I would only agree to sahm if he'd make me a director of his farm. We decided not to go down that route for various reasons but if we had he would have agreed.

Original poster
LiveFastDieOld2 · 07/07/2013 08:51

I can think of several ladies in the area who have been left very hurt in exactly the way you describe. I can think of two who were practically, if not actually, made to move from the family home when their husband died and their son plus his wife wanted the big house for themselves. Their last few years were spent in a tiny farm cottage with a low income remembering how it used to be.

OP posts:
lilystem · 07/07/2013 08:42

Interesting live fast. I'm a farmer. To the extent I unload fertiliser/load grain lorries. I love watching the lorry drivers faces when they think I'm going to hit their precious lorry but then they realise I'm actually pretty good!

I'm divided on inheritance. For many smaller family farms it would destroy the business to split it. I too know a lot of families where the girls won't inherit. I think that's beginning to change though in that I know a few where because its the girl who shows the interest it is the girl who'll inherit. Don't forget also that on a lot of farms, yes they'll be inheriting a few million in assets but often they also inherit a lot of debt.

I don't agree with you on isolation - there's loads if things to get involved in - over the years I've done yfc, under 30's at the farmers club, local church, made friends with other local farmers - especially the girls.

Re male control - I know a lot of farmers who you'd think it was the man in control but actually it's the wife!

BadSkiingMum · 07/07/2013 08:41

That is interesting, because I suppose there is no equality influence on laws of inheritance in the same way that there is on the laws around divorce.

The only way out of it would seem to be for women to withdraw their unpaid labour if they know that they are not going to be rewarded at a later date.

GetStuffezd · 07/07/2013 08:31

Interesting post!

My grandad (mum's mum) is a farmer with vast amounts of land, some of which he's sold over the years for development. Safe to say, he is extremely wealthy. When my mum, the eldest of five, was twelve, my grandma and grandad broke up and grandma moved out, leaving my mum to essentially raise the other four. She gave up her ideas of university and worked on the farm, which I know still hurts her now.

Grandad is now in declining health and is in the process of leaving his farm to his two sons and their sons - not a look in for my mum who did so much. She doesn't say much about it but I know she's very hurt.