Women's Rights

Citation:

Ryan, Louise, and Margaret Ward. 2019. Irish Women and Nationalism: Soldiers, New Women and Wicked Hags. Newbridge: Irish Academic Press.

Authors: Louise Ryan, Margaret Ward

Annotation:

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Nationalism, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Ireland

Year: 2019

Citation:

Steckley, Marylynn, and Joshua Steckley. 2019. “Post-Earthquake Land Appropriations and the Dispossession of Rural Women in Haiti.” Feminist Economics 25 (4): 45-67.

Authors: Marylynn Steckley, Joshua Steckley

Abstract:

This study examines the trajectory of rural women’s labor in the wake of post-earthquake land appropriations in Haiti. Drawing on ethnographic field research conducted between 2010 and 2013, it explores gendered access to land in Haiti in both historical and contemporary contexts, paying attention to the nature of rural gender relations and how they influence women’s access to land and their roles in petty commerce. The study describes the stratification of rural market women, their lived experience, and how losing land access will affect their traditional roles as market women. Ultimately it argues that without access to land, and a paucity of available wage work, recent dispossession will intensify existing vulnerabilities for rural women and narrow their means of household production by forcing them to depend on informal market activity in their roles as machann (market women). 

Keywords: women's labor, primitive accumulation, agrarian transition, Haiti, earthquake, land grabs

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Households, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries Countries: Haiti

Year: 2019

Citation:

Salcedo-La Viña, Celine, and Laura Notess. 2017. “Ensuring Gender-Equity in Compensation and Resettlement Schemes Related to Commercial Land Investments in Tanzania and Mozambique.” Paper presented at the 18th Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, Washington, DC, March 20-24.

Authors: Celine Salcedo-La Viña, Laura Notess

Abstract:

Large-scale land transfers have a disproportionate impact on women’s land rights. Prior research has shown that women in many countries have limited participation in the decision-making process preceding alienation of land from their communities. This research extends this analysis into the context of compensation and resettlement processes, which are crucial to protecting the rights of local communities impacted by development projects. It does this by examining the relevant law and practice in Tanzania and Mozambique. Both countries have experienced periods of intense investor interest in land acquisition, and have developed some legal protections for the rights of communities to compensation and/or resettlement following land transfers. However, gender-blindness in these provisions permits the perpetuation of practices which negatively impact women’s access to land and overall well-being.

The paper begins by surveying the relevant legal framework for each country, followed by a discussion of compensation and resettlement in practice, informed by a combination of a literature review and field research conducted by in-country partners. It then identifies key regulatory gaps, and proposes specific regulatory reforms to 1) improve women’s participation and representation, 2) ensure women’s inclusion in compensation, and 3) address loss of communal resources and infrastructure in a gender-sensitive manner. 

Keywords: Gender, women, land acquisitions, resettlement, compensation

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Development, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique, Tanzania

Year: 2017

Citation:

Salcedo-La Viña, Celine, and Maitri Morarji. 2016. “Making Women’s Voices Count in Community Decision-Making on Land Investments.” Working Paper, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

Authors: Celine Salcedo-La Viña, Morarji Maitri

Annotation:

Summary:
The adverse impacts of commercialization and large scale land acquisitions in the global South are often disproportionately borne by women. The loss of access to farmland and common areas hit women harder than men in many communities, and women are often excluded from compensation and benefit schemes. Women’s social disadvantages, including their lack of formal land rights and generally subordinate position, make it difficult for them to voice their interests in the management and proposed allocation of community land to investors. While the development community and civil society have pushed for standards and safeguard policies that promote the meaningful involvement of rural communities generally in land acquisitions and investments, strengthening the participation of women as a distinct stakeholder group requires specific attention.

This working paper examines options for strengthening women’s participatory rights in the face of increasing commercial pressures on land in three countries: Mozambique, Tanzania, and the Philippines. It focuses on how regulatory reform—reforms in the rules, regulations, guidelines, and procedures that implement national land acquisition and investment laws—can promote gender equity and allow women to realize the rights afforded by national legal frameworks and international standards. The paper stems from a collaborative project between World Resources Institute and partner organizations in the three countries studied.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Mozambique, Philippines, Tanzania

Year: 2016

Citation:

Olivius, Elisabeth, and Jenny Hedström. 2019. "Militarized Nationalism as a Platform for Feminist Mobilization? The Case of the Exiled Burmese Women's Movement." Women's Studies International Forum 76.

Authors: Elisabeth Olivius, Jenny Hedström

Abstract:

Feminist scholars have convincingly demonstrated how militarism and nationalism rely on the (re)production of gendered hierarchies. As a result, feminism is often assumed to be at odds with these political projects. In this article, we demonstrate that this is not always and not necessarily the case: in contrast, militarized nationalism may even constitute fertile ground for the mobilization of feminist organization and activism. We make this argument drawing on an in-depth case study of the emergence and evolution of an exiled Burmese women's movement from within armed ethno-nationalist struggles in the borderlands of Myanmar. Drawing on interviews with women activists, we examine when and how militarized nationalism can provide a space from which feminist agendas can be articulated and successfully pursued. This case demonstrates that militarized nationalism does not only have the potential to mobilize women's participation, but can provide a platform for feminist organization and activism that transcends, challenges, and eventually reshapes militarized nationalist projects in ways that advance women's rights and equality. These findings call into question generalized assumptions about the conflictual relationship between feminism, militarism and nationalism, and contributes to advance feminist debates about women's mobilization in contexts of armed conflicts and nationalist struggles.

Keywords: feminism, militarism, nationalism, women's activism, Myanmar, armed conflict

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Nationalism, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2019

Citation:

Ghadery, Farnush. 2019. "Sticking to Their Guns: The United Nations’ Failure to See the Potential of Islamic Feminism in the Promotion of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan." In The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, edited by Javaid Rehman, Ayesha Shahid, and Steve Foster, 117-43. Leiden: Brill Nijhoff.

Author: Farnush Ghadery

Abstract:

In recent years, peace and justice processes in post-conflict countries have turned into an industry of their own. With a variety of actors, norms and processes involved, the fields have not only expanded as areas of practice, but also attracted considerable attention amongst scholars. Whilst the role of the international community in post-conflict States, particularly as part of peace and justice processes, has been subject of much scholarly debate, this article focuses on international actors’ attempts at advancing women’s rights in predominantly Muslim post-conflict countries. It discusses the reluctance of the most significant international actor in a variety of post-conflict processes, namely the United Nations, to engage more closely with contextualised bottom-up approaches to women’s rights advocacy under its Women, Peace and Security agenda. The article focuses specifically on the United Nations’ failure to see the potential of Islamic feminism in post-conflict Afghanistan as an alternative to its hitherto strategy of grounding women’s rights in Western liberal conceptions of ‘universal’ human rights. It argues for a more contextual approach to women’s rights advocacy by the United Nations that allows for the possibility of including non-hegemonic rights discourses as well as granting more attention to local bottom-up approaches.

Topics: Feminisms, International Organizations, Post-Conflict, Peace Processes, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2019

Citation:

 Nwapi, Chilenye. 2016. “Land Grab, Property Rights and Gender Equality in Pluralistic Legal Orders: A Nigerian Perspective.” African Journal of Legal Studies 9 (2): 124–46.

Author: Chilenye Nwapi

Abstract:

This article considers the impact of land grab on the promotion of gender inequality within the Nigerian pluralistic legal order. It examines the interface between customary law and statute law in the determination of land ownership and access in Nigeria. It makes two key arguments. (1) While legal pluralism presents opportunities for curtailing the excesses of customary law, it has often resulted in the dominant legal system – statute law – fostering gender inequality in a manner that is beyond the capacity of the so-called barbaric customary laws. (2) The capacity of law to effectively address the problem of gender inequality within the context of land grab is very limited, because the nature of most land grab-related activities that promote gender inequality are appropriately legal and it is their unintended consequences that undermine women’s rights. The article argues for an effective use of the political process to complement legal interventions.

Keywords: land grab, customary law, statute law, legal pluralism, gender inequality, Property Rights

Topics: Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Justice, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2016

Citation:

Ndi, Frankline A. 2019. “Land Grabbing: A Gendered Understanding of Perceptions and Reactions from Affected Communities in Nguti Subdivision of South West Cameroon.” Development Policy Review 37 (3): 348–66.

Author: Frankline A. Ndi

Abstract:

This article examines the political economic processes and gendered consequences involved in large‐scale land acquisition (LSLA ) in rural South West Cameroon. The study adopts a gender‐disaggregated approach to data collection to understand local perceptions and reactions to LSLA in the region. It shows how traditional cultural prescriptions have combined with contemporary land laws to masculinize power over land to the detriment of women. It argues that although men and women are both affected by LSLA projects, the impacts are much greater for women because what the state considers “empty land” is used by them to secure household food security. Second, it argues that amid societal discrimination over land‐ownership rights, perceived gender differences between men and women appear “rational” in the event of LSLA —men follow their ascribed roles in overt reactions, women being more covert and much less vocal in land‐related contests. New policies that promote rural women's land rights will not only empower them during land struggles, they will also provide communities with greater security to sustain ecologically viable livelihoods.

Keywords: Cameroon, feminist political ecology, gender perceptions and reactions, land grabbing, large-scale land acquisition, rural livelihoods

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods, Political Economies, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Cameroon

Year: 2019

Citation:

Gmür, Désirée. 2020. “Not Affected the Same Way: Gendered Outcomes for Commons and Resilience Grabbing by Large-Scale Forest Investors in Tanzania.” Land 9 (4): 122.

Author: Désirée Gmür

Abstract:

The topic of large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) has attracted wide interest in the literature and the media. However, there is little work on the gendered institutional changes and gendered impacts on common pool resources (CPR) due to LSLA. The aim of this paper is to address these impacts. This is done by discussing data from participatory research (using the methods of participatory observation, semi-structured and narrative interviews, biographies, focus group discussions, value chain analysis, and household questionnaires) on a forestry plantation operated by the British investor, the New Forests Company (NFC) in the Kilolo district, in the Iringa region. The institutional arrangements regarding different land-related common pool resources from pre-colonial times until the arrival of this investment will be shown. Furthermore, how these arrangements have changed over time and since the LSLA is presented. Then, the effects on men’s and women’s access to CPR and, thus, the impacts on their capacities to perform their reproductive work and resilience will be addressed. Furthermore, the paper focuses on how different stakeholders in the land deal (the investor, the government, different local people) make use of these different institutions to push through their own interests regarding the land. Finally, the paper looks at collective compensation payments (such as monetary compensation and jobs) and forms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) schemes, and how they are perceived emically. It is argued that the LSLA in this case clearly grabs land and land-related common pool resources that were previously held in common. Women, such as daughters, sisters, and wives, had specific access and property rights to these. Thus, the paper concludes that this grabbing lowers women’s resilience and deprives them of important resources for their livelihoods, and for food and cash production at critical times. CSR programmes and compensation rarely reach women and are, for them, an anti-politics machine, hiding the grabbing processes, and impacting the poorest of the poor, while the company uses a development discourse to legitimise its activities. In fact, the people perceive the investment as trapping them in underdevelopment.

Keywords: large scale land acquisitions, Gender, institutions, common pool resources, common property, land tenure transformations, corporate social responsibility, social anthropology, resilience

Topics: Development, Gender, Land Grabbing, Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2020

Citation:

Capraro, Chiara, and Jessica Woodroffe. 2018. “Digging Deep: The Impact of Uganda’s Land Rush on Women’s Rights.” London: Womankind Worldwide.

Authors: Chiara Capraro, Jessica Woodroffe

Annotation:

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Governance, Justice, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2018