Women in many countries are far less likely than men to own property and assets - key tools to gaining economic security and earning higher incomes. Though laws to protect women's property rights exist in most countries, gender and cultural constraints can prevent women from owning or inheriting property. In this series, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) suggests practical steps to promote, protect and fulfill women's property rights.

A Guidebook on Women Human Rights Defenders is aimed to help women human rights defenders name the specific risks, violations and constraints they face in their work.  It presents a practical discussion of the useful mechanisms developed by the state and also the civil society to provide redress and remedy, and to protect women human rights defenders.  It is intended to be used by human rights and other organisations to further a gender perspective in the monitoring and documentation of human rights. 

This study stresses the importance of land for the rural poor as a source of livelihood and describes the gendered and often inequitable experience of access to land and other natural resources. It also provides a set of guidelines for actions to increase women's access to land, including awareness raising, and emphasises the need for better contextual udnerstanding of the gendered aspects in land allocation and adjudication. The report also provides suggestions for indicators of secure land access prior to, during and after programs of intervention.

This is a report of a research project conducted in the Volta region of Ghana on women’s access to land. The authors conclude that women’s land tenure in this area is pervasively insecure. Specific customary norms in the matrilineal society perpetuate this insecurity and demonstrate the lack of implementation of legal measures set up to protect women against property rights discrimination. The authors give recommendations for improving women’s secure access to land, targeting the local community, NGOs and legal aid clinics as well as the government.

In rural Africa and the Middle East, many ecosystems are on the verge of collapse. The interplay of social, ecological, and political-economic forces has compromised the ability of farmers to sustain their precious soil. As a result, farmers, and especially women farmers, face a constant daily struggle to survive.

The effect of prime-age adult death and its consequences on access to land for the survivors has not been fully explored nor incorporated into policy regardless the fact that high adult mortality is now the lived reality in countries affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. This paper explores the gendered relationships between adult death due to HIV/AIDS and changes in land rights for the survivors particularly widows. In many African societies, women have traditionally accessed land through marriage.

Poor women in developing countries rely on land as source of livelihood. Increasing pressure on land — brought on by globalisation pressures, increased population and privatisation — undermines women’s land tenure security. The comparison of women’s land access is predominantly measured against that of men, and this has been the basis for formulating policy aimed at increasing women’s land tenure security. However, this dichotomy reduces women to a homogenous group which experiences tenure security in an identical manner, so the dichotomy masks several differences which exist among women.

[From the Executive Summary] Women’s access to and control over land is crucial for improving their status and reducing gender inequalities, which in turn are critical factors in reducing the prevalence of poverty, malnutrition and AIDS. Women’s farming activities, which prioritise providing food for the family, have been largely overlooked in agricultural policy. And women’s rights to land and livelihoods have barely been included in HIV strategies and programmes.

The importance of land to poor people’s livelihoods cannot be over emphasized. Land provides the foundation upon which people construct and maintain livelihoods. Consequently, secure access to land is a prerequisite for securing livelihoods. Women are the majority of the poor as they have limited access to social and economic resources. This increases their dependence on basic resources like land. The majority of women rely on a land based livelihood mainly as subsistence agricultural producers.

Securing the rights of both women and men to land is essential for sustainable rural development, social equity and economic growth. Today women are the major agricultural producers at the household level. Yet their rights are often marginalized and can be lost in development projects unless gender-inclusive practices are implemented. This guide focuses on gender relations and how their structure may affect access to land.

The Gender, Land and Asset Survey (GLAS) is one of the first studies to undertake a quantitative and gendered assessment of men’s and women’s rights over assets – including ownership, documentation and degree of control over use, transfer and transactions – and the implications thereof.