Joint status for wives?

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 11

Joint status for wives?

Farmers’ wives should have the opportunity to become either wage-earn-ers or legal partners with their husbands, the provincial executive of North Canterbury Federated Farmers has been told. Mrs N. Poulsen, president of the Canterbury province of the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers, told the executive that many women left very highly paid jobs to become farmers’ wives. There was no financial disadvantage in either farming in partnership or paying the wife wages, and the big advantage

would be to give her a sense of sharing and belonging. Federated Farmers should come out into the 1980 s and support the concept, Mrs Poulsen said. Mr F. A. Bull disagrees, and said that a young farmer and his wife shared the hardships and the rewards equally as they became established on their farm, and the farmer’s wife was usually well taken care of by money set aside for domestic purposes. '■This is outside the scope of Federated

Fanners and I do not think we should advise our members on the proposition,” he said. After a long debate, most members agreed that establishing either a wageearning or business partnership was the private business of each couple. However, the executive voted in favour of supporting the idea, and decided to approach the Inland Revenue Department to determine just what advantages there were in paying a farmer’s wife wages, or making her a legal business partner.