Female and male domestic partners in wine-grape farms (Cognac, France): conjugal asymmetry and gender discrimination in family businesses

Abstract

International audienceAgriculture in contemporary France is dominated by family businesses. On Cognac wine-grape farms, training for the occupation and taking over the business is the result of parents' efforts to socialize one (or more) of their children. This long-term socialization varies by gender. Farm property, professional skills, and the status of business head are in most cases transmitted to male heirs. Female heirs suffer discrimination in their families. If they have one or more brothers, their families take it as a given that a male heir ought to inherit the farm, and that female heirs are ‘not interested.’ To elucidate these phenomena, I will compare two asymmetrical situations, ‘ordinary cases’ – when a male heir heads the grape-growing business – vs. ‘exceptional cases,’ when a female heir is farm head. For the first, I will show that female domestic partners' off-farm salaried labor does not put an end to on-farm productive or financial cooperation in the couple. For the second situation, I show that male domestic partners, working on or off the farm, are always problematic, presenting another obstacle for women wishing to take over a family grape-growing business. By focusing analysis on the asymmetry of female and male domestic partners in family businesses, this article thus makes an empirical contribution to knowledge of discrimination against female business heads

Entrepreneurial women’s networks: the case of D’Uva – Portugal wine girls

“…In this way, gender discrimination still persists, and women are stereotyped, forcing them to survive and overcome the social barriers erected against them (Eagly and Steffen, 1984; Gupta et al , 2014). Women still have to fight against gender discrimination in family businesses, particularly in wine companies (Bessière, 2014). In terms of vineyards in France, Bessière (2014) reports that the holdings not continued by the owners’ children are often bought or rented by other farmers’ children.…”

“…Women still have to fight against gender discrimination in family businesses, particularly in wine companies (Bessière, 2014). In terms of vineyards in France, Bessière (2014) reports that the holdings not continued by the owners’ children are often bought or rented by other farmers’ children. Thus, proprietors’ children who follow their parents’ legacy also frequently assume the management of their neighbors’ vineyards.…”

“…Participation in family farming by children is limited not only to the transmission of a material inheritance but also to perpetuating transgenerational entrepreneurship. In this process, families develop entrepreneurial mindsets and use family-influenced resources and capacities to create new flows of entrepreneurial value, including financing, and social relationships between generations (Anderson et al , 2005; Bessière, 2014).…”

“…Bessière (2014) also points out that in-family vocational transmission of vineyards in the Cognac region of France includes including children in the family line of work so that they can take over the business later. This is the result of parents’ efforts to socialize their children, which consists predominantly of passing on a love of and passion and taste for their vineyard and the creation of wine to their children, rather than only teaching relevant techniques and professional skills.…”

Invisible Women: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Family Firms in Nineteenth-Century France

“…If unearned income reduced the probability of female market activity, then the wives of successful entrepreneurs might not have acquired experience by participating in the family business, making them especially unprepared for taking over leadership roles in the event of death or incapacity of the male entrepreneur 5 . Céline Bessière (2014) further states that women were subject to discrimination within their own families, and were not offered access to the skills and knowledge that would enable them to prosper at the head of the family firm (see also Wang 2010; Boudjaaba 2014). If cultural biases implied that women were restricted to petty trading or economic activities within the household, and to avoiding overt profit-maximization, their contributions were less likely to be at the frontier of entrepreneurship and innovation.…”