Women’s land rights and village institutions in Tanzania

Garance Genicot and Maria Hernandez-de-Benito

World Development, 2022, vol. 153, issue C

Abstract: Strengthening women’s ownership of and control over land is an important development goal. This paper studies the extent of women’s land rights in rural Tanzania and how patrilineal norms affect them. We show that married women in rural Tanzania still own little land without their husbands and have limited rights over the jointly owned land. In Tanzania, an inherent tension lies in the recognition of customary laws that explicitly discriminate against women, and statutory laws that establish equal rights for men and women. Customary patrilineal practices persist. In particular, we find that firstborn sons are expected to inherit more land than firstborn daughters, and widows’ inheritance rights are affected by the gender of their children. We also find that women’s tenure security in case of divorce or inheritance is fragile. In Tanzania, village institutions play a key role in the management of land rights and the mediation of land disputes. We find that members of village institutions have more pro-women views on land rights than the average household respondent. However, using randomized vignettes to measure gender bias, we show they do not always make gender-neutral recommendations in case of land disputes.

Keywords: Tanzania; Gender; Land rights; Inheritance; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 K11 O12 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Women's Land Rights and Village Institutions in Tanzania (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:153:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22000018

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105811

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