Women’s Rights to Land: A Distant Dream

Attempting to understand the ground situation of women’s rights to access, own and control land, this narrative explores the discriminatory laws, policies, patriarchal customs, traditions and attitudes that have for generations remained obstacles that deprived women of their basic rights

G lobally and historically, land is known to be a source of food, employment and income. It is the key to a life of dignity, a basis for entitlements that can ensure economic independence, an adequate standard of living and, therefore, personal empowerment. Land also confers social prestige and offers an access to political power. It has long been recognized as a possible tool to advancing the socio-economic rights and well-being of women and their position in society. Yet, the access to and the control and ownership of land largely remains a male privilege, thereby reinforcing patriarchal structures of power and control over community resources, history, culture and tradition

Granting women their right to land, therefore, is becoming a matter of increasing urgency. In most societies, women have fulfilled the responsibilities of domestic labour, family care and nutritional security. As the definitions of these gender roles, and the contexts surrounding them, become more tenuous (generating both a positive and negative impact on women), the need for women to be able to secure land and property has become even more critical.

The International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) in an article, ‘The issue: Women’s assets and property’, reported that just one per cent of the world’s women actually own land. This documents and demonstrates the stark reality of the legal ownership of land by women.