IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v81y2019icp39-48.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Masculinity, men and patriarchal issues aside: How do women’s actions impede women’s access to land? Matters arising from a peri-rural community in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene

Abstract

There have been many contributions to the understanding of how gender functions impede women’s access to land. However, particular frameworks concerning how women contribute to their lack of access to land have been widely ignored. This study investigates the frames that hinder women’s access to land due to (in)actions of women, in a peri-rural community in Nigeria. It is a qualitative study based on data from e-Focus Group Discussions with international researchers on gender and land; and key informants’ interviews with local women. The study argues that women do contribute to their lack of access to land by some of their actions or inactions. It questions the role women play in their land tenure status in customary land tenure. The study approaches its subject by problematising women’s land access beyond the concept of patriarchy and investigating how women’s lack of access to land is reinforced by not just men, but by women. The study reveals that even though in many instances patriarchy and customary laws play a significant role in women’s lack of access to land, there are cases where women contribute to their lack of access to land. Among other factors, it identifies ‘Brother complex’ and ‘self-hurt’ issues as some of the structures emanating from women which hinder their smooth access to land. The study is important and presents a useful initiative that can inform policies aimed at strengthening women’s land tenure. It contributes to a radical transformative agenda towards women’s access to land.

Suggested Citation

  • Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene, 2019. "Masculinity, men and patriarchal issues aside: How do women’s actions impede women’s access to land? Matters arising from a peri-rural community in Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 39-48.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:81:y:2019:i:c:p:39-48
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.10.033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837718306264
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.10.033?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Djurfeldt, Agnes Andersson & Hillbom, Ellen & Mulwafu, Wapulumuka O. & Mvula, Peter & Djurfeldt, Göran, 2018. "“The family farms together, the decisions, however are made by the man” —Matrilineal land tenure systems, welfare and decision making in rural Malawi," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 601-610.
    2. Jean‐Philippe Platteau, 1996. "The Evolutionary Theory of Land Rights as Applied to Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Critical Assessment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 27(1), pages 29-86, January.
    3. Amber Peterman & Agnes Quisumbing & Julia Behrman & Ephraim Nkonya, 2011. "Understanding the Complexities Surrounding Gender Differences in Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria and Uganda," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(10), pages 1482-1509.
    4. Bina Agarwal, 1997. "''Bargaining'' and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond the Household," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1-51.
    5. Niraj Jain & Roy Chileshe & Francis Muwowo & Majory Lupiya, 2016. "Perceptions of Customary Land Tenure Security in Western Province of Zambia," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 4(2), pages 78-93, February.
    6. Adugna Eneyew & Sileshi Mengistu, 2013. "Double Marginalized Livelihoods: Invisible Gender Inequality in Pastoral Societies," Societies, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-13, February.
    7. Ariti, Adenew Taffa & van Vliet, Jasper & Verburg, Peter H., 2018. "Farmers’ participation in the development of land use policies for the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 129-137.
    8. Po, June Y.T. & Hickey, Gordon M., 2018. "Local institutions and smallholder women’s access to land resources in semi-arid Kenya," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 252-263.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Uchendu Eugene Chigbu & Tobias Bendzko & Menare Royal Mabakeng & Elias Danyi Kuusaana & Derek Osei Tutu, 2021. "Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration from Theory to Practice: Three Demonstrative Case Studies of Local Land Administration Initiatives in Africa," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-24, May.
    2. Kohima, Jennilee Magdalena & Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene & Mazambani, Malcon Liyali & Mabakeng, Menare Royal, 2023. "(Neo-)segregation, (neo-)racism, and one-city two-system planning in Windhoek, Namibia: What can a new national urban policy do?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Gwaleba, Method Julius & Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene, 2020. "Participation in property formation: Insights from land-use planning in an informal urban settlement in Tanzania," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Odjuvwuederhie Emmanuel Inoni & Bayero Sule Gani & Elizabeth Sabo, 2021. "Drivers of Crop Diversification: Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in Delta State Nigeria," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 69(1), pages 59-70.
    5. Flower, Benjamin C.R. & Ganepola, Piyal & Popuri, Srinivasa & Turkstra, Jan, 2023. "Securing tenure for conflict-affected populations: A case study of land titling and fit-for-purpose land administration in post-conflict Sri Lanka," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    6. Montcho, Marthe & Padonou, Elie A. & Montcho, Marlise & Mutua, Meshack N. & Bayen, Phillip, 2023. "Impact of land tenure on livelihoods of women livestock-keepers in Burkina Faso," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    7. Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene, 2019. "Anatomy of women’s landlessness in the patrilineal customary land tenure systems of sub-Saharan Africa and a policy pathway," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 126-135.
    8. Uchendu Eugene Chigbu, 2020. "e-Tracking COVID-19 Disruptions to the Global Development Agenda on Land," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 26(1), pages 1-9, September.
    9. Ghimire, Puspa Raj & Devkota, Niranjan & Marasini, Tek & Khanal, Ghanashyan & Deuja, Jagat & Khadka, Umesh, 2024. "Does joint land ownership empower rural women socio-economically? Evidence from Eastern Nepal," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    10. Uchendu Eugene Chigbu & Gaynor Paradza & Walter Dachaga, 2019. "Differentiations in Women’s Land Tenure Experiences: Implications for Women’s Land Access and Tenure Security in Sub-Saharan Africa," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-21, January.
    11. Cuong Viet Nguyen, 2022. "The Impact of Joint Land Titling: Evidence from Vietnam," European Journal of Business Science and Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics, vol. 8(2), pages 127-142.
    12. Uchendu Eugene Chigbu, 2019. "Visually Hypothesising in Scientific Paper Writing: Confirming and Refuting Qualitative Research Hypotheses Using Diagrams," Publications, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, March.
    13. Adewunmi, Yewande & Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene & Mwando, Sam & Kahireke, Uaurika, 2023. "Entrepreneurship role in the co-production of public services in informal settlements − A scoping review," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    14. Augustina Chiwuzie & Olusegun Adebayo Ogunba & Daniel Ibrahim Dabara, 2021. "Gender Land Right Issues under the Customary System of Ile-Ife, Nigeria," AfRES 2021-021, African Real Estate Society (AfRES).
    15. Azadi, Hossein, 2020. "Monitoring land governance: Understanding roots and shoots," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Abubakar, Ismaila Rimi, 2021. "Predictors of inequalities in land ownership among Nigerian households: Implications for sustainable development," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    17. Chiwuzie Augustina & Daniel Ibrahim Dabara & Adebayo Olusegun Ogunba & Olusegun Joseph Omotehinshe, 2021. "Sustainable Land and Food Security in Female-Led Agrarian Households of Tula, Nigeria," AfRES 2021-020, African Real Estate Society (AfRES).
    18. Mengesha, Ayelech Kidie & Damyanovic, Doris & Mansberger, Reinfried & Agegnehu, Sayeh Kassaw & Stoeglehner, Gernot, 2021. "Reducing gender inequalities through land titling? The case of Gozamin Woreda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    19. Daniel, Desiree & Sutherland, Michael & Ifejika Speranza, Chinwe, 2019. "The role of tenure documents for livelihood resilience in Trinidad and Tobago," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Astrid Sneyers & Anneleen Vandeplas, 2013. "Girl Power in Agricultural Production: How Much Does it Yield? A Case-Study on the Dairy Sector in India," LICOS Discussion Papers 34113, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    2. Vijaya, Ramya M. & Lahoti, Rahul & Swaminathan, Hema, 2014. "Moving from the Household to the Individual: Multidimensional Poverty Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 70-81.
    3. Han, Wenjing & Zhang, Xiaoling & Zhang, Zhengfeng, 2019. "The role of land tenure security in promoting rural women’s empowerment: Empirical evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 280-289.
    4. Ebelechukwu Maduekwe & Gertrud Buchenrieder, 2023. "The effect of negative human recognition on farmland access and well‐being: Evidence from women farmers in Malawi," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 112-133, February.
    5. Ifeoma Q. Anugwa & Agwu E. Agwu & Murari Suvedi & Suresh Babu, 2020. "Gender-Specific Livelihood Strategies for Coping with Climate Change-Induced Food Insecurity in Southeast Nigeria," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(5), pages 1065-1084, October.
    6. Lauren Pandolfelli & Ruth Meinzen-Dick & Stephan Dohrn, 2008. "Gender and collective action: motivations, effectiveness and impact," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 1-11.
    7. Leanne Roncolato & Alex Roomets, 2020. "Who will change the “baby?” Examining the power of gender in an experimental setting," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 823-852, September.
    8. Colleta Gandidzanwa & Aart Jan Verschoor & Thabo Sacolo, 2021. "Evaluating Factors Affecting Performance of Land Reform Beneficiaries in South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-15, August.
    9. Joshua Sikhu Okonya & Netsayi Noris Mudege & Anne M. Rietveld & Anastase Nduwayezu & Déo Kantungeko & Bernadette Marie Hakizimana & John Njuki Nyaga & Guy Blomme & James Peter Legg & Jürgen Kroschel, 2019. "The Role of Women in Production and Management of RTB Crops in Rwanda and Burundi: Do Men Decide, and Women Work?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-15, August.
    10. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    11. Thomas Vendryes, 2014. "Peasants Against Private Property Rights: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 971-995, December.
    12. Bouquet, Emmanuelle, 2009. "State-Led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change: Land Titles, Land Markets and Tenure Security in Mexican Communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1390-1399, August.
    13. Ggombe Kasim Munyegera & Akampumuza Precious, 2018. "The gender gap in firm productivity in Rwanda: Evidence from establishment and household enterprise data," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-100, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Daniel Ayalew Ali & Stefan Dercon & Madhur Gautam, 2011. "Property rights in a very poor country: tenure insecurity and investment in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 42(1), pages 75-86, January.
    15. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus & Goldstein, Markus, 2014. "Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 262-275.
    16. Sarah Ryser, 2019. "The Anti-Politics Machine of Green Energy Development: The Moroccan Solar Project in Ouarzazate and Its Impact on Gendered Local Communities," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-21, June.
    17. Fisher, Monica & Kandiwa, Vongai, 2014. "Can agricultural input subsidies reduce the gender gap in modern maize adoption? Evidence from Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 101-111.
    18. Vellore Arthi & James Fenske, 2018. "Polygamy and child mortality: Historical and modern evidence from Nigeria’s Igbo," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 97-141, March.
    19. Allendorf, Keera, 2007. "Do Women's Land Rights Promote Empowerment and Child Health in Nepal?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1975-1988, November.
    20. Rie Makita, 2009. "The visibility of women’s work for poverty reduction: implications from non-crop agricultural income-generating programs in Bangladesh," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(4), pages 379-390, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:81:y:2019:i:c:p:39-48. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.