Young rural women students of agricultural sciences: do they not want or do not have the opportunity to be successors?

Abstract  The present research aimed to identify the intentions and perspectives of young women students of the courses of agricultural sciences and related areas of the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul, in Campus Sertão. The article focused on the discussion of gender, seeking to fill a gap in studies on succession, as it is a dimension that has been little examined. A total of 386 young rural women, students of agricultural science courses, participated in the research, who answered a closed questionnaire, prepared with responses on a Likert scale of 5 points. Data were tabulated and statistically analyzed in the PSPP (Program for Statistical Analysis of Sampled Data) program with descriptive analysis and Chi-Square test. The results showed that young women find an unfavorable family environment to be successors, especially because they receive less encouragement from their parents, especially mothers, to remain in the countryside and be successors and have less opportunity to participate in the operational and managerial activities of the property. Consequently, these young women have less interest in being managers and successors of their parents' rural property. The present research concluded that even when rural young women want to be successors or remain in the countryside, they are not given the equal condition, compared to young men, to prepare themselves and feel welcomed or desired as successors.

Keywords:
female farmers; family farming; young women; gender; stay in the field