Feminist Knowledge | Land Issues
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Please note that these papers have been obtained from a range of sources and are not peer-reviewed.
Women
and Land Reform in South Africa
by Marinda Weideman
This article evaluates the
impact of ten years of land reform in South Africa on the social, political
and economic status of women. Each of the three components of the South African land reform
programme is evaluated independently. The
South African land reform programme has done little to improve the position
of women (compared to men), because of the failure to take account of the differences
between men and women, as well as among women, in a context of an essentially
market-based land reform programme. The result has been inappropriate agricultural
and development policies, inappropriate technology and inappropriate land distribution.
Women’s inferior position in a fundamentally patriarchal society (rural
areas and under systems of traditional authority) has further contributed to
the tendency among policy developers and implementers to take the “male” perspective
as the “community” perspective. No land
reform programme can succeed unless women actively engage in policy formulation
and implementation, which, in turn requires social mobilisation and the emergence
of a strong rural women’s movement.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe: A Women's Rights Perspective
prepared
by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
Women, Land Tenure and Inheritance
in Ghana: Equal Access or Discrimination?
by Dzodzi Tsikata
by Emmanuel Chiwome and Zifikile Mguni (University of Zimbabwe)