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Land reform: still a goal worth pursuing for rural women?
Author(s) -
Jacobs Susie
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.934
Subject(s) - livelihood , land reform , food security , agriculture , economics , rural area , development economics , economic growth , public economics , political science , geography , law , archaeology
Land reform has recently become a topic of interest to the media. Given historical experience and current changes, are land reform policies still worthwhile objects of struggle for rural women? The article discusses arguments ‘against’: for instance, women have been excluded from most past land reforms, and many rural people have had to diversify their livelihood bases, so that agriculture has diminished in importance. Despite these and other points, the article argues that land reform which includes women would be of great benefit: it would increase food security, would allow wives to keep better control over their own incomes, and would increase women's status more generally. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.