The Fifty-Fourth Session of the Commission on the Status of Women: Gendered Terrain: Women's Rights and Access to Land

Access to land is critical to advancing women’s economic rights in the developing world. Where laws exist to protect women’s right to own land, they may come into direct conflict with gendered power relations that govern ownership, control over, and access to land.

This panel will examine issues such as why women are landless; the social and legal structures that shape land tenure regimes and mediate women’s land rights; access to land as both a cause and effect of women’s marginalization; and the role of the state in according women land rights through land reform.

Panelists will present key research findings from IDRC-supported projects in Pakistan, Senegal, and Eastern and Southern Africa. They will also offer recommendations to policymakers and practitioners seeking to redress women’s unequal access to land.

Land Tenure, Gender, and Globalization, a co-publication of IDRC and Zubaan Books will also be launched. This book, based on IDRC-supported research, explores the relationship between gender and land in six countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, revealing the workings of global capital and people’s responses to it.