More than ever, farms are relying on women and their earning capacity to stay afloat in today's destabilised and deregulated agricultural marketplace - and to continue family structures into the next generation.
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However, the experience can be an uncomfortable paradox for women who marry into intergenerational family farms, bringing their off- and on-farm skills into the business.
University of New England researchers have unsparingly laid out that contradiction, highlighting how, on one hand, the "dreaded daughter-in-law" is essential for the continuation of the family enterprise.
On the other, she may be also seen as the biggest threat to its continuation - "... the most dangerous animal on the farm", as one interviewee put it.
In an analysis based on interviews with 22 farm succession professionals, researchers noted how, in particular, older landholding generations in farming families, could be highly defensive against attempts by daughters-in-law to take on new roles other than being the dutiful farmer's wife.
Farming families had commonly resisted the prospect of a daughter-in-law changing established ways of doing things on the property, or worse, making a claim on the farm asset in the event of divorce.
While the research showed landholding generations felt Australian family farms were invariably reliant on women's off-farm work, at the same time the "biological, social and cultural reproduction of the family farm" relied on them maintaining traditional gender roles.
"This creates tensions within family farms that the landholding generation aim to resolve through legally protecting the farm asset against a claim by the daughter-in-law, and by discursively punishing role digression," wrote UNE's Dr Lucie Newsome.
Dr Newsome is the lead author of the report titled "The 'dreaded' daughter-in-law in farm business succession".
"Given the reliance of Australian family farms on women's labour contributions, these actions may threaten rather than ensure the continuity of family farming," her report surmised.
The rising value of farmland, and growing reliance on the farm as a form of superannuation, had raised the stakes on a smooth intergenerational transfer of assets.
By association, rising farm asset and commodity values also raised expectations that daughters-in-law should conform to family expectations and not rock the boat.
A lot of these girls have sacrificed a lot and are whip-smart and could contribute enormously to these businesses being more successful
- UNE survey respondent
However, squashing a daughter-in-law's contribution into a narrow, preconceived role could also be a missed opportunity, reported the team of five UNE researchers who conducted the study.
One interviewee told the researchers:
"A lot of these girls have sacrificed a lot and ... are whip-smart and actually could contribute enormously to these businesses being more successful if (the older generation would) just put fear aside, be clear about what they're frightened of, deal with it, and move on."
The researchers concluded that changing gender norms and legal rights, and the economic destabilisation of family farming, should encourage reconsideration of the daughter-in-law's role on the farm.
They wrote: "...defensive mechanisms to isolate and devalue the role of the daughter-in-law in reproducing the family farm may be counterproductive.
"In attempting to preserve the status quo of gender relations, family farm businesses are failing to prepare for a changing business and social environment."
Looking optimistically at the longer term, the findings noted young daughters-in-law feeling under pressure might find relief over time, as they aged into the family enterprise.
"As they age, women's agency in relation to men and other women in the family may strengthen," the report said.
"As women's tenure in the farm family increases, her influence and authority strengthens as she moves from daughter-in-law to matriarch."
But Dr Newsome, who specialises in gender equality work, hoped in future, such resolutions were not delayed.
She said there was plenty of scope for more open and continuous succession planning discussions and the "need to recognise the contributions of all family members".