In competition with a brother: Women's inheritance positions in contemporary Swedish family forestry

Abstract

Swedish family forestry is characterized by traditional perceptions of the farm as a project that spans generations and a strong desire to preserve family ownership in accordance with a paternal inheritance tradition. In this study women's inheritance positions in contemporary family forestry in Sweden were examined using three different sources: (1) a national register of all forest owners; (2) an inquiry study; and (3) narrative accounts from female forest owners. An asymmetrical ownership pattern was exposed in the analysis of all three materials. Gender had an impact on who, what and how family owned forest land was transferred from one generation to another. Furthermore, analysis of the narrative accounts showed that a minority of the women corresponded to the concept transitive element. A typology with three additional concepts, namely transitive agent, transformative element and transformative agent, is therefore suggested and discussed.

Keywords:

• Data triangulation
• gender
• typology

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Ms Karin Engman for the initial selection and compilation of the narratives, and Professor Berit Brandth, PhD Anncristin Winroth and MSc Patrik Häggqvist for providing valuable comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. The study has been financed by The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (Gunnar och Birgitta Nordins fond and von Horns fond).