How can women be treated more fairly in farm succession?
© AdobeStock Succession is always a tricky subject, but for women specifically, it can pose additional problems.
According to Farmers Weekly’s landmark survey on women in agriculture, succession is the area of farming where most respondents believe men and women are not treated equally.
See also: Why don’t women own farmland and does it matter?
In 2024, just 36% of women said they felt women were treated equally when it comes to succession.
That is a drop of almost a half from the 69% who gave that answer when we carried out a similar piece of research 10 years ago, in 2014.
Men were also less likely to believe women are treated equally on succession in 2024 than in 2014 (61% in 2024 versus 83% in 2014).
“There is possibly a change of perception on what fairness in succession looks like,” says Kat Wainman, partner at Irwin Mitchell solicitors.
“Historically, women accepted that the men would inherit the farm, but now I think that is changing and they’re wanting equality.”
Family name
A wide range of views were expressed by respondents to the Farmers Weekly survey about the ways women are treated differently when it comes to succession.
Many felt farmers have a strong sense of attachment to legacy, which means they want to keep the farm in their family and associated with the family name.
Often, this extends to an expectation that women will “marry well”, with the farm seen as the son’s “birthright”.
Some women even told of their experiences of being “cut out” of the farm after marrying.
Lancashire dairy farmer Cath Morley was not subjected to this, but she was part of a succession discussion very recently with a solicitor who advised her husband on the basis of keeping the farm with his “family line.”
“We did resolve it between us and it was fine, but there is a distrust of women who marry into families,” Cath says.
“They aren’t allowed to have a name on anything, just in case they might get divorced.
“Had our children been older when we did this, I probably would have been missed out and the children would have been left the farm, with something to say ‘Mum’s got to live here till she’s dead’.
“That’s what we did with my husband’s parents. His mum never owned anything. Her name was never on anything.”
Stereotypes
Another finding from Farmers Weekly’s research was that gender stereotypes within families mean girls are not trained to do farm work in the same way as boys.
Instead, they are encouraged to work off farm, meaning when the time comes for succession, they are overlooked and it is assumed they’re not interested in taking over.
Clare Otridge, director at Grounded Research, said the industry was “shut off” to her from an early age because of the physical demands of farming in the early 1990s.
“Seed bags used to be 50kg and you’d have to lift them up to the top of the drill, and getting a tractor hooked up to an implement would be a challenge for a girl on her own,” she explains.
“So a lot of farmers then probably didn’t encourage their daughters to be farmers because it would not have been physically possible.
“What that did, without meaning to, was tell me ‘that door’s closed. Go and do something else’.”
Ingrained belief
According to Farmers Weekly’s survey, despite a shift in attitudes over the past few decades, there is still a deeply ingrained belief in farming culture that sons are the “natural successors”.
One respondent said: “Too often, farms are given over to the eldest male instead of the best person for the running of the business.
“Farms are seen as empires, and the strategic health of the business is not considered.”
Cath also sees this attitude in her community.
“I still get this now when we go out to places to meetings,” she says.
“People will say ‘have you got any kids coming through?’ And my husband will say ‘we’ve got two sons.’ The response is ‘two sons – brilliant’.
“A couple of generations above us, the 60- to 70-year-olds just don’t think girls want to farm and they’re not actively encouraged.”
Historically, the right of primogeniture has meant the eldest male takes on the farming business – and this served the important purpose of keeping the land together.
“If you pass on the land as equally as possible, the business will probably be completely unviable by the third generation,” says Kat.
“There is a good reason for this tradition, but it can and should completely change now, because it’s not the case that the eldest male is necessarily the best person to succeed.”
Best person
Jeanette Dennis, partner at Ashtons Legal, agrees. “Every business should have the best people running it,” she says.
“Just because somebody’s male, doesn’t mean they are the best person.
“You could have a son who unfortunately has been squashed in his ambition or hasn’t actually gone away from the farm and two daughters who are professionals or run their own businesses.
“They could be quite comfortable with taking risks, with product development, with negotiating overdrafts with the banks and understand accounts.
“Put it as starkly as that and I would prefer the women to the men.”
Business structure can offer a solution
According to Jeanette Dennis of Ashtons Legal, some of the hesitancy to involve women in succession discussions comes down to a misunderstanding of business structures, such as farm partnerships.
“When you explain land ownership can remain with the father, or the mother and father, or with other siblings, and a partner doesn’t automatically get a place at the table for the land, they understand they can carve up the business,” she says.
“From my point of view, it’s about trying to demystify the process.”
Both Jeanette and Kat Wainman of Irwin Mitchell suggest learning about how farm business structures work could also alleviate some fears about a farm’s connection to the family name.
“It seems quite an outdated concept, but a lot of people still have these beliefs,” says Kat.
“One way around this could be to have a company or a partnership that’s called whatever the family name is and then it keeps going.”
Kat suggests another way to bring women into discussions around succession is to look at existing or future diversifications.
“The industry is changing. You can bring lots of different people in and play to their strengths,” she says.
“That’s probably going to be even more important in this whole new era.”
Professional advice
Jeanette and Kat both believe professionals advising farming families have a role to play in breaking down taboos around succession for women.
“If somebody instructs us to do something, we’ll say ‘absolutely fine, we can do that. But can we just ask why you want us to do it? Can you give us a back story?’” says Jeanette.
“I know some people would just say, ‘OK, that’s fine’, but I will have some honest conversations with two or three generations around the table.”
Kat adds: “It’s probably really helpful in the context of women and succession having female advisers who question things.
“When I first started, I went to meetings thinking I really wanted to solve it all there and then, but what I’ve learned as I’ve got older is it’s better to do something and keep talking.”
Level The Field
Huge strides forward have already been made for women in farming over the past few decades, but problems still remain, such as:
- Low land ownership rates among women
- Resulting difficulty in accessing private finance or government support
- Difficulties in using equipment/work clothing/on-site facilities designed for men
- Lack of access to flexible working for childcare or other family needs
- Low representation in representative farming organisations at the highest levels
- Being overlooked for succession
- Being subjected to prejudice either on farm or at farming events.
Level the Field will seek to shine a light on these problems and offer solutions to them.
The main part of the campaign will centre on practical support for farm business owners – both men and women.
See more on our Level the Field page.