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Back to Menu Who's the Boss? Dumfries and Galloway Standard June 2009
It happened again this week. I could spot the tell-tale signs whenever I drove up to the farm. The gravel in our yard was deeply scored by the tracks of a vehicle that had left in a hurry. My old sheepdog, who normally lies next to the door of the house, was cowering under the livestock trailer, in a faraway corner of the yard. As I got closer to the house I could see that there were chips of Snowcem and broken plaster lying on the door step. It all pointed towards an inappropriate gender incident. Some misguided fool - a man - had come to the door, while I was away, and had asked my wife “is the boss aboot”. Big mistake! A clip round the ear and the door closed sharply, crushing your foot, is the way that such insolence is dealt with at Airyolland these days. Now that Janet has entered, shall we say, a new decade in her life which is not the third one; her tolerance of such blatant chauvinism has been lowered to somewhere just south of zero. I have to say that this new brash approach that she is using towards problem reps is a great improvement on past performances. It used to be quite worrying that she would harbour her resentment towards these men without it ever being too obvious to the transgressor. On a previous occasion I had entered the kitchen to find a poor hapless soul sitting drinking a cup of tea and eating a sandwich quite oblivious to the danger that he was in. “That man is waiting to see the boss.” Janet said, as she left the room, without halting in her step. A quick glance around reassured me that the worm tablets for the dogs were all still there on the shelf where I had left them. I’m quite sure that my business is not unique in the respect that there is a wife who is taking an active part in running the farming enterprise. Statistics for the gender ratio involved in the management of Scottish farm businesses is hard to sift out from the myriad of numbers that are collected and presented by government each year. But, from what I can gather a figure of about 15% of all farms will be under the sole control of a female. It might also be safe to assume that this is a figure that will be rising with every year that passes. As for the other 85% of farm businesses that are assumed to be run by men. My old collie dog and I might question whether this is a safe assumption to make. A great many successful family farms are run as equal partnerships with each of the pair bringing their own areas of expertise to the business. Just because the men skive off to the market every week doesn’t mean that they are in sole control of the running of their business. Time off for good behaviour would be more like it. As for me, I know which side my bread is buttered on and as long as equality is my watchword I remain confident that there will be nothing else in the butter! |