Women’s land and property rights: A foundation for empowerment One of the key foundations of both women’s economic empowerment and their wider political empowerment and equality with men is land – particularly the right to secure tenure of land. To be successful, any strategies for women’s economic empowerment must therefore address land – whether for farming, housing or any other productive or investment-related use. Professor Bina Agarwal published a powerful book in 1994: A Field of One’s Own, the first major study of gender and land rights in South Asia. The book’s overarching thesis is that ‘the single most important economic factor affecting women’s situation is the gender gap in command over property’. Agarwal showed clearly and thoroughly the centrality of land rights in explaining gender inequality in South Asia, and the importance of secure access to land for women in improving their economic position and their bargaining power within their households. A second women’s rights advocate to note is the late Kaori Izumi. Izumi was a prolific activist and proponent of women’s land rights. One of her major achievements was the convening of an important workshop on women’s land rights in southern and eastern Africa, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Commonwealth Governance 94 Handbook 2014/15 (FAO) and Oxfam GB, in Pretoria in 2003 (Oxfam GB, FAO and SARPN, 2003). At the workshop, a famous t-shirt was launched, its slogan ‘Property and a piece of land give women peace of mind’. We can see from these examples that women’s economic empowerment is actually what the struggle for women’s land rights has been about right from the start. Ultimately, both secure access to land and women’s economic empowerment are about peace of mind for women; about independence from men; about being able to stand on their own two feet in supporting themselves and their children; about freedom from fear, insecurity and poverty; and about freedom to be treated and respected as equals in all aspects of life. Secure land rights are the basis of a secure home and the means of producing food for household consumption or sale. Land is a resource to fall back on after an economic or other shock. Land and other forms of property are assets to bring into a marriage and land can also act as collateral for loans. The concept of women’s economic empowerment has clearly evolved over the years into a much broader phenomenon, with the sectoral areas falling under the umbrella of women’s economic Elizabeth Daley, Mokoro Many women in Rwanda now own land, either jointly with their husbands or in their own right Giulio Napolitano / Shutterstock.com
CEP template 2012
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