Gender and Command Over Property

This text focuses on the link between gender inequities and command over property. It outlines why, in rural South Asia, where arable land is the most important form of property, any significant improvement in women's economic and social situation is crucially tied to their having independent land rights. Better employment opportunities can complement but not substitute for land. Yet, despite progressive legislation, few South Asian women own or effectively control land. The reason is a complex range of factors - social, administrative and ideological - that make the gap between women's legal rights and their actual ownership of land, and between ownership and control.