Women's property rights

Last updated

Women's property rights are property and inheritance rights enjoyed by women as a category within a society.

Contents

Property rights are claims to property that are legally and socially recognized and enforceable by external legitimized authority. [1] Broadly defined, land rights can be understood as a variety of legitimate claims to land and the benefits and products produced on that land. [2] Inheritance, transfers from the State, tenancy arrangements, and land purchase are all constructs of land rights. [3] These rights can be in the form of actual ownership or usufruct, the rights of use.

Global overview

Women play an integral part in the production of food and goods, from work in fields, factories, and home-based business across the globe. [4] There is a critical relationship in the role that women play and the sustenance provided for families, communities, and nations. [4] Globally, an estimated 41% of women headed households live below the locally defined poverty line, with one-third of the world's women either homeless or living in inadequate housing facilities. [5] The additional exclusion of women from access to land pushes them towards cities, where they often join the ranks of increasing number of women-headed households in slum areas. [5] However, through the processes of globalization and industrialization, there has been a noted increase in the numbers of women entering in the waged labor sectors. [6] Rural women are solely responsible for half of the world's food production, and in developing countries, as much as 80% of food crops. [7] More recent estimates claim that half of the world's food and in developing countries, between 60-80% of food crops are the results of growth from seeds that have been planted by a woman's hand. [8] This persistence of traditional divisions of labor, in which women hold primary responsibility for producing food, as well as other labor-intensive tasks such as gather water and fuel, contributes to the large percentage of women informally working in rural areas. [9] The roles that women play differ significantly by region, with an average of 43% of the agricultural labor force in developing countries, ranging from 20% in Latin America to 50% in Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. [9] Thus, in addition to increasing vulnerability and reducing status, exclusion of women from the decision making process and the control and transfer of land has also led to a decrease in food security and sustainable development. [1]

Shifting systems

Though women's lack of formal control over land and resources has long persisting historical roots, economies and societies undergoing extensive change have created deep implications for ownership rights. [10] In subsistence production systems, access to land was determined by status within the family rather than actual ownership rights; resulting in both men and women having “user rights” to produce food for their families. The combined processes of industrialization and globalization have disrupted longstanding livelihoods and systems of production, forcing many families to focus more on income-generating activities than on subsistence practices. [11] However, increasing women's access to property rights has numerous significant economic benefits for the overall community as well as psychological and social benefits for the lives of women, themselves, especially in agricultural societies. Economically, when women have greater access to land-ownership in rural areas, which started being implemented by the government following the 20th century mandates on property laws in order to ultimately promote greater gender equality, women begin to independently cultivate their own land (given to them either by the state itself, allocated otherwise through the private market, or passed on by a male relative), form women collectives to learn more about agricultural practices as well as profit-generating skills and ultimately, have yielded more output from that given land than the previous owners. [12] Further, the psychological benefits from increasing women's access to property rights is that this leads to a significant decrease in instances of marital domestic violence. [13] All of these factors would contribute positively to the economic growth of that given community in the long-term by experiencing greater overall labor force participation rates, increased income generation and greater investment in child healthcare and education, also thereby combating malnutrition and breaking out of the poverty cycle. [14]

Impact of gender bias

The typical process of agrarian transformation under which labor shifts from agriculture to nonagricultural has occurred slowly and with heavy gender-bias. [1] Because women's property rights are often assumed through the security of the oftentimes, male, household head, some inheritance laws allocate less property to female heirs than male heirs. [15] Ongoing adherence to male-dominated traditions of property ownership has generally meant that women cannot take advantage of the wide range of benefits associated with ownership and control of property. [16] According to the Land Tenure Service at FAO, poverty is inversely correlated with household land ownership and direct access to land minimizes women's risk of impoverishment and improvements the physical well-being and prospects for children. [17]

Land titles

The process of titling has been administered with strong gender bias, with women usually denied equal ownership rights. [11] Furthermore, property and inheritance claims are generally processed through loosely organized administrative bodies consisting of local leaders and clerks with limited legal training. Closer inspection of the decision makers, notes a body of mostly males. [11]

Patriarchal property rights

Women who are potentially able to meet their subsistence needs on their own may threaten to leave the household if they are not given a large share of the surplus. [18] However, due to patriarchal property rights, husbands control over the allocation of wives’ labor time, husbands can make decisions that reduce the value of their wives’ alternatives to marriage. [18] Both the right to manage land and control the income from production, encompassing secure rights to land access, have much deeper implications than mere access. For many women, access to land and property are essential to the production of food as well as sustainable livelihoods, but are dependent on natal and marital affiliations. In many countries, women can lose rights to land when there is a change in marital status, including marriage, divorce, or even death of a spouse. [19]

Male dominance

Because of the worldwide prevalence of patrilineal inheritance customs, both productive resources and property such as household goods have ended up in the hands of men and not women. When only men have rights of inheritance or family succession, women have little opportunity to improve their status or living conditions within the family and community. Consequently, they are rendered dependent on male relatives for survival and have little say over how property is used to generate income or to support families. Additionally, within patrilineal communities, there is a strong resistance by men towards endowing women, especially daughters, with rights to land access. [20]

Barriers to change status

Inadequate laws and systems of enforcement

While there are a growing number of contemporary laws, as framed by the modern State, which give inheritance rights to daughters when they are recognized as individuals among the communities, the process of marriage and the traditionally patrilineal customs have remained largely unchanged. [20] Thus, there remains a mismatch between marriage practices and inheritance laws, with the strength and biases of the marriage practice often overriding inheritance laws. This is also evidenced in the process of dowry practices. In many cultures, a daughter's dowry is viewed by her family as her direct portion of her inheritance, even though it may be typically absorbed by the new husband and his family. Thus, while in some communities women do have the formal rights to inherit lands, the social representation of inheritance in the form of dowries and the strength of the practice of marriage trump given laws. [19]

Levels of education, oftentimes products of restrictions on women's interaction with institutions which are primarily composed of men, create a mystique and illusion about legal actions. [21] Additionally, ideologies about the conduct that a woman displays, normally taking the form of docility, can bring shame to the idea of challenging persisting gender inequalities in law, policy and land rights. [22]

Prevalence of traditional attitudes and practices

Gender ideologies, or beliefs and stereotypes of the expected characteristics of a particular gender, provide a barrier for women to gain property rights and enhance status. [20] These ideologies may take the form of assumptions of the role that a woman plays in society, her needs or capabilities, which thus affect the way that an issue is framed and implemented.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wife</span> Female spouse; woman who is married

A wife is a woman in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until their marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgment. On the death of her partner, a wife is referred to as a widow. The rights and obligations of a wife to her partner and her status in the community and law vary between cultures and have varied over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land reform</span> Changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership

Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural land. Land reform can, therefore, refer to transfer of ownership from the more powerful to the less powerful, such as from a relatively small number of wealthy or noble owners with extensive land holdings to individual ownership by those who work the land. Such transfers of ownership may be with or without compensation; compensation may vary from token amounts to the full value of the land.

A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment by the groom, or his family, to the bride, or her family, dowry is the wealth transferred from the bride, or her family, to the groom, or his family. Similarly, dower is the property settled on the bride herself, by the groom at the time of marriage, and which remains under her ownership and control.

Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important intersection of property and contract law. Encumbrance on the land rights of one, such as an easement, may constitute the land rights of another. Mineral rights and water rights are closely linked, and often interrelated concepts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digo people</span> Ethnic group from Tanzania and Kenya

The Digo are a Bantu ethnic and linguistic group based near the Indian Ocean coast between Mombasa in southern Kenya and northern Tanga in Tanzania. In 1994 the Digo population was estimated to total 305,000, with 217,000 ethnic Digo living in Kenya and 88,000 in Tanzania. Digo people, nearly all Muslims, speak the Digo language, called Chidigo by speakers, a Bantu language.

In the early 1960s, an interest in women and their connection with the environment was sparked, largely by a book written by Esther Boserup entitled Woman's Role in Economic Development. Starting in the 1980s, policy makers and governments became more mindful of the connection between the environment and gender issues. Changes began to be made regarding natural resource and environmental management with the specific role of women in mind. According to the World Bank in 1991, "Women play an essential role in the management of natural resources, including soil, water, forests and energy...and often have a profound traditional and contemporary knowledge of the natural world around them". Whereas women were previously neglected or ignored, there was increasing attention paid to the impact of women on the natural environment and, in return, the effects the environment has on the health and well-being of women. The gender-environment relations have valuable ramifications in regard to the understanding of nature between men and women, the management and distribution of resources and responsibilities, and the day-to-day life and well-being of people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminism in India</span> History of the feminist movement in India

Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and opportunities for women in India. It is the pursuit of women's rights within the society of India. Like their feminist counterparts all over the world, feminists in India seek gender equality: the right to work for equality in wages, the right to equal access to health and education, and equal political rights. Indian feminists also have fought against culture-specific issues within India's patriarchal society, such as inheritance laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bina Agarwal</span> Indian development economist

Bina Agarwal is an Indian development economist and Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the Global Development Institute at The University of Manchester. She has written extensively on land, livelihoods and property rights; environment and development; the political economy of gender; poverty and inequality; legal change; and agriculture and technological transformation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Nepal</span> Overview of the status of women in Nepal

The status of women in Nepal has varied throughout history. In the early 1990s, like in some other Asian countries, women in Nepal were generally subordinate to men in virtually every aspect of life. Historically, Nepal has been a predominantly patriarchal society where women are generally subordinate to men. Men were considered to be the leader of the family and superior to women. Also, social norms and values were biased in favor of men. This strong bias in favor of sons in society meant that daughters were discriminated against from birth and did not have equal opportunities to achieve all aspects of development. Daughters were deprived of many privileges, including rights, education, healthcare, parental property rights, social status, last rites of dead parents, and were thought to be other's property and liabilities. In the past century, there has been a dramatic positive change in the role and status of women in Nepal, reducing gender inequality. While the 1990 Constitution guaranteed fundamental rights to all citizens without discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, caste, religion, or sex, the modernization of society, along with increased education of the general population, have also played an important role in promoting gender equality. The roles of women have changed in various ways in the modern Nepalese society.

Gender inequality in India refers to health, education, economic and political inequalities between men and women in India. Various international gender inequality indices rank India differently on each of these factors, as well as on a composite basis, and these indices are controversial.

Intra-household bargaining refers to negotiations that occur between members of a household in order to arrive at decisions regarding the household unit, like whether to spend or save or whether to study or work.

Landesa Rural Development Institute is a nonprofit organization that works with governments and local organizations to obtain legal land rights for poor families. Since 1967, Landesa has helped more than 180 million poor families in 50 countries gain legal control over their land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender and food security</span>

Gender inequality both leads to and is a result of food insecurity. According to estimates, women and girls make up 60% of the world's chronically hungry and little progress has been made in ensuring the equal right to food for women enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Women face discrimination both in education and employment opportunities and within the household, where their bargaining power is lower. On the other hand, gender equality is described as instrumental to ending malnutrition and hunger. Women tend to be responsible for food preparation and childcare within the family and are more likely to be spent their income on food and their children's needs. The gendered aspects of food security are visible along the four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization and stability, as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in agriculture in India</span>

India has an economy bound to its historical agricultural tradition. In the North, the Indus valley and Brahmaputra region are critical agricultural areas with water supplied by the Ganges and monsoon season. Agriculture is a way of life for the majority of India's population; based on 2011 World Bank data, only 17.5% of India's gross domestic product (GDP) is accounted for by agricultural production. Women are an important but often overlooked population involved in India's agricultural production—they represent the majority of the agricultural labor force in India. Women's participation in the agrarian labor force plays out in various ways, impacting their economic independence, their decision-making abilities, their agency and access to education and health services. Many women in farming communities suffer poverty and marginalization, and issues of gender inequality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's health in India</span> Demographic health topic

Women's health in India can be examined in terms of multiple indicators, which vary by geography, socioeconomic standing and culture. To adequately improve the health of women in India multiple dimensions of wellbeing must be analysed in relation to global health averages and also in comparison to men in India. Health is an important factor that contributes to human wellbeing and economic growth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Bulgaria</span> Overview of the status of women in Bulgaria

Women in Bulgaria refers to women who live in and are from Bulgaria. Women's position in Bulgarian society has been influenced by a variety of cultures and ideologies, including the Byzantine and Ottoman cultures, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, communist ideology, and contemporary globalized Western values.

The dowry system in India refers to the durable goods, cash, and real or movable property that the bride's family gives to the groom, his parents and his relatives as a condition of the marriage. Dowry is called dahez in Hindi and as jahez in Urdu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matrilineal society of Meghalaya</span> Migration flow in Meghalaya

Multiple tribes in the state of Meghalaya in northeast India practise matrilineal descent. Often referred to as Khasi people and Garo people, among the Khasi people which is a term used as a blanket term for various subgroups in Meghalaya who have distinguishing languages, rites, ceremonies, and habits, but share an ethnic identity as Ki Hynniew Trep whereas the Garo people refers to the various groups of Achik people. The Khasi, Garo, and other subgroups have a proud heritage, including matrilineality, although it was reported in 2004 that they were losing some of their matrilineal traits. The tribes are said to belong to one of the "largest surviving matrilineal culture[s]" in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Female empowerment in Nigeria</span> Economic and social movement

Female empowerment in Nigeria is an economic process that involves empowering Nigerian women as a poverty reduction measure. Empowerment is the development of women in term of politics, social and economic strength in nation development. It is also a way of reducing women's vulnerability and dependency in all spheres of life. It can be noted that the aggregate of educational, political, health and legal empowerment are key to women's empowerment in Nigeria. Like many African women, Nigerian women have a subordinate role to their male counterparts. There are twice as many women below the poverty line than men, and up to 19 times as many men in executive positions than women.

Gender inequality in Nepal refers to disparities and inequalities between men and women in Nepal, a landlocked country in South Asia. Gender inequality is defined as unequal treatment and opportunities due to perceived differences based solely on issues of gender. Gender inequality is a major barrier for human development worldwide as gender is a determinant for the basis of discrimination in various spheres such as health, education, political representation, and labor markets. Although Nepal is modernizing and gender roles are changing, the traditionally patriarchal society creates systematic barriers to gender equality.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Agarwal, Bina (2002). "Are we not peasants too? Land rights and women's claims in India" (Pamphlet). SEEDS Pamphlet Series. 21.
  2. ↑ Schlager, Edella; Ostrom, Elinor (August 1992). "Property-rights regimes and natural resources: a conceptual analysis". Land Economics. 68 (3): 249–262. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.422.8178 . doi:10.2307/3146375. JSTOR   3146375. S2CID   2908275.
  3. ↑ Allendorf, Keera (November 2007). "Do women's land rights promote empowerment and child health in Nepal?". World Development. 35 (11): 1975–1988. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2006.12.005. PMC   3657746 . PMID   23700354.
  4. 1 2 Kevane, Michael; Gray, Leslie C. (1999). "A woman's field is made at night: gendered land rights and norms in Burkina Faso". Feminist Economics. 5 (3): 1–26. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.194.4747 . doi:10.1080/135457099337789.
  5. 1 2 Benschop, Marjolein (22 April 2004), "Women's rights to land and property", in UN-HABITAT (ed.), Women in human settlements development - challenges and opportunities, New York: Commission on Sustainable Development, pp. 126–128
  6. ↑ "The World's Women reports - World's Women 2000: Chapter 5 - Work". United Nations Statistics Division. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  7. ↑ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1997). Women and Food Security. FAO FOCUS.
  8. ↑ Gupta, Geeta Rao (14 October 2009). "Guest column: when women farm, crops and economies grow". Truth about trade and technology. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  9. 1 2 Raney, Terri (2011), "The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11" (PDF), Women in Agriculture: Closing the gender gap for development (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, New York{{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ↑ Lastarria-Cornhiel, Susana (April 2005), "Gender and Property Rights Within Postconflict Situations - issue paper no. 12 (PN-ADB-672)" (PDF), United States Agency International Development (USAID) Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC), New York{{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. 1 2 3 Grown, Caren; Gupta, Geeta Rao; Kes, Aslihan (2005). Taking action achieving gender equality and empowering women (Task Force on Education and Gender Equality) . London Sterling, Va: Earthscan. ISBN   978-1844072224.
  12. ↑ Agarwal, Bina (2005). "Marital Violence, Human Development and Women's Property Status in India" (PDF). World Development. 33 (5): 823–850. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.01.009 – via Bina Agarwal.
  13. ↑ Agarwal, Bina (2005). "Marital Violence, Human Development and Women's Property Status in India" (PDF). World Development. 33 (5): 823–850. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.01.009 – via Bina Agarwal.
  14. ↑ Quisumbing, Agnes E. (1999). "Intrahousehold Allocation and Gender Relations: New Empirical Evidence" (PDF). The World Bank. Working paper series, no. 2: 1–66. doi:10.22004/AG.ECON.16460. S2CID   2362338. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-18 – via The World Bank Development Research Group.
  15. ↑ Blau, Francine D; Ferber, Marianne A; Winkler, Anne E (1998). The economics of women, men, and work (third ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN   9780135659793.
  16. ↑ Steinzor, Nadia (March 2003). "Women's property and inheritance rights: improving lives in changing times - final synthesis and conference proceedings paper" (PDF). US Agency for International Development (USAID), NGO Small Grants Program's "Conference on Women's Property and Inheritance Rights" 18–21 June 2002. Nairobi, Kenya: Development Alternatives, Inc: A Women in Development Technical Assistance Project, Office of Women in Development, (USAID). Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  17. ↑ Crowley, Eve (August 2001), "Land rights (policy brief 2 of 12)", in Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. (eds.), Empowering women to achieve food security (Focus 6), International Food Policy Research Institute - A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment, pp. 3–4
  18. 1 2 Braunstein, Elissa; Folbre, Nancy (2001). "To honor and obey: efficiency, inequality, and patriarchal property rights". Feminist Economics. 7 (1): 25–44. doi:10.1080/713767276. S2CID   18498043.
  19. 1 2 Giovarelli, Renee; Wamalwa, Beatrice (2011). Land tenure, property rights, and gender: Challenges and approaches for strengthening women's land tenure and property rights (USAID Issue Brief - Property rights and resource governance briefing paper #7). New York: United States Agency International Development (USAID). Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  20. 1 2 3 Agarwal, Bina (October 1994). "Gender and command over property: a critical gap in economic analysis and policy in South Asia". World Development. 22 (10): 1455–1478. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.472.6354 . doi:10.1080/135457097338799.
  21. ↑ Agarwal, Bina (January 2003). "Gender and land rights revisited: exploring new prospects via the state, family and market". Journal of Agrarian Change. 3 (1–2): 184–224. doi:10.1111/1471-0366.00054.
  22. ↑ McCreery, John L. (April 1976). "Women's property rights and Dowry in China and South Asia". Ethnology. 15 (2): 163–174. doi:10.2307/3773327. JSTOR   3773327.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.