The “dreaded” daughter-in-law in Australian farm business succession

Abstract

Egalitarian gender norms and legislative rights to property may be a threat to the successful intergenerational transfer of the family farm. This article examines how the land holding generation perceives the role of daughters-in-law in reproducing the family farm. We examine the site of farm succession and intergenerational transfer. We draw on interviews with 22 farm succession professionals. Our analysis demonstrates the land holding generation see the financial reproduction of the Australian family farm as reliant on women's off-farm work and the biological, social and cultural reproduction of the family farm is reliant on women's role adherence to traditional gender norms. This creates tensions within family farms that the landholding generation aim to resolve through legal protections of the farm asset against a claim by the daughter-in-law and by discursively punishing role digression. Given the reliance of Australian family farms on women's labour contributions, these actions may threaten rather than ensure the continuity of family farming.