Women's Land Rights and Village Institutions in Tanzania

Garance Genicot and Maria Hernandez de Benito ()
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Maria Hernandez de Benito: University of Alicante, https://sites.google.com/view/mariahernandezdebenito/home
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Maria Hernandez-de-Benito

Working Papers from Georgetown University, Department of Economics

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 show 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. Classification- O17, O12, D13, K11

Keywords: Tanzania; Gender; Land Rights; Inheritance; Institutions; Vignettes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 82
Date: 2021-11-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-gen, nep-hme and nep-law
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Journal Article: Women’s land rights and village institutions in Tanzania (2022)
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