ABSTRACT
Farm families planning intergenerational farm transfers confront a dilemma: how to treat all members equitably without destroying the farm in the process. Since female heirs typically do not farm, the dilemma focuses on how to respect the rights of daughters while maintaining enterprise continuity. Despite equal inheritance values and the enhancement of women's right to hold property, the amount of farmland controlled by women in the nation has not increased substantially. The consequences of equal inheritance by both the farming son and the nonfarm siblings were generally negative for the heir to the family occupation. This chapter describes the religious ideologies and yeoman agricultural goals of two Anabaptist sects. It delineates variations in the position of women in the family and on the farm in relation to how religious beliefs affect daughters' handling of the parental farm resources they inherit. The chapter discusses the social and economic implications for each solution.
