A Woman's Field Is Made At Night: Gendered Land Rights And Norms In Burkina Faso

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A Woman's Field Is Made At Night: Gendered Land Rights And Norms In Burkina Faso

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Michael Kevane, Leslie C. Gray

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Michael Kevane

Abstract

Gendered social norms and institutions are important determinants of agricultural activities in southwestern Burkina Faso. This paper argues that gendered land tenure, in particular, has effects on equity and efficiency. The usual view of women as holders of secondary, or indirect, rights to land must be supplemented by a more nuanced understanding of tenure. Women's rights are in fact considerably more complex than the simple right to fields from their husbands. First, women's rights to property obtained from men may be coupled with other rights and obligations. In many ethnic groups, women have share rights to the harvest of their husbands. Second, despite land scarcity and rises in land value certain types of rights are strengthening. Specifically, women are more and more able to obtain land through the market. Finally, government intervention in the gendering of tenure seems to have eroded women's individual rights to land even when government projects explicitly try to incorporate women as "partners" in land-use programs.

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Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Feminist Economics.

Volume (Year): 5 (1999)
Issue (Month): 3 (November)
Pages: 1-26
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Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:5:y:1999:i:3:p:1-26

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References listed on IDEAS
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

Deininger, Klaus & Castagnini, Raffaella, 2004. "Incidence and impact of land conflict in Uganda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3248, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Deininger, Klaus & Castagnini, Raffaella, 2006. "Incidence and impact of land conflict in Uganda," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 321-345, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

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