Recent research by the Scottish Government found the practice of passing the family farm to the eldest son to be one of the biggest barriers to women’s equality in agriculture.



Professor Sally Shortall, who led the research, believes talented women are in an impossible position.

Professor Sally Shortall

“The key thing you need to farm is land, and access to land is very gendered,” she claimed on Landward.

“Farmers leave land to their sons, in general. That’s not peculiar to Scotland: that’s true right across Europe.”

The accepted tradition

Professor Shortall recounted the experiences of women, including one who learned at a young age that she would never control the family farm.

“I interviewed one woman – who was the eldest of four girls – who was gearing up to be the farmer.

“She said that, when she was 13, her brother was born and she knew then that she would not inherit the farm.”

The automatic line of succession does not go unnoticed by men, according to Professor Shortall.

“One of the men we interviewed said that, though his sister showed more aptitude toward farming than he did, there had never been any discussion or consideration [by their parents] that she would take on the farm.

“It was always going to be him.”