Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
ORCID
N/A
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Environmental Conservation
Degree Type
Master of Science (M.S.)
Year Degree Awarded
2017
Month Degree Awarded
May
Abstract
The majority of the forested land in New England is owned by private landowners, a large number of whom are at or above retirement age. In the coming decades these landowners are going to be making decisions about what happens to their land once they no longer own it. Female landowners specifically play a critical role in the long-term planning and decision-making process. Women generally have a longer life expectancy than men and assess their level of confidence and financial stability in ways that differ from men. This difference in perception influences the decisions they make about their land. Despite this, little is known about decisions female landowners are making and barriers they face to formulating informed decisions that are in line with their goals. In order to understand more about female landowners’ estate planning objectives, I conducted a mixed-methods study. Through a mail survey and subsequent qualitative interviews, I found that women were more likely than men to have lower confidence confidence in moving forward with plans for the land, lower certainty that their financial resources were adequate to move forward, and less certainty when it came to future decisions about their land. However, women who were certain about their estate planning objectives were more likely than men to have a conservation-based decision. The results of this mixed-methods study are applied to peer-to-peer network events and outcomes are discussed.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/9461944
First Advisor
Paul Catanzaro
Second Advisor
David Kittredge
Third Advisor
Marla Markowski-Lindsay
Fourth Advisor
Ezra Markowitz
Recommended Citation
zimmerer, rebekah, "A Mixed-methods Study on Female Landowner Estate Planning Objectives" (2017). Masters Theses. 546.
https://doi.org/10.7275/9461944
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/546