Women's access to land and household bargaining power

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argaining power. This research is unique as it goes further to analyse how access to and control over ownership to land enhance women’s bargaining position within the household and ultimately contributes to improvements in their eco- nomic, social and cultural rights. In this sense, this research intended primarily to contribute to the debate surrounding the first intervention. WOLREC’s research was therefore guided by the following specific objectives: • To examine the co-existence or overlapping of customary and statutory laws, practices and norms that govern women’s access and control to/over land within patrilineal and matrilineal contexts. • To assess the relationship between women’s access to land and household bargaining power and compare how this varies in matrilineal and patrilineal contexts. • To support and enhance the agency of women to influence gender sensitive changes in policy and practice. Our findings, however, suggest that more research is re- quired around interventions of the second type, namely how women’s social status may be improved in order to increase their inter- and intra-household bargaining and hence their access to and control over land. Furthermore, research needs to investigate the possibility that ownership and household bargaining power are mutually shaping relationships, in which the neglect of either dynamic is likely to impact nega- tively on the improvement of poor, rural women’s lives. Women’s Land Rights
1. Research methodology Straus and Schwartzman define a field researcher as “a meth- odological pragmatist,” a resourceful, talented individual who has ingenuity, and an ability to think on her/his feet while in the field (Neuman W L:2003). The research team applied different methodologies in the data collection and Table 1: Summary of research methods Method No in patrilineal Focus Group Discussions Individual interviews analysis to capture the qualitative richness of women’s access, control and ownership to land, and their bargaining power in patrilineal and matrilineal societies. The table below gives the summary of the research methods used and their effectiveness: No in matrilineal Usefulness Limitations 10 10 Smaller groups able to engage in the research Done separately for men and women and created free atmosphere for sharing 63 women 20 men Key 4 traditional leaders, 3 extension workers Participant Observation Community Visioning 1 resident field researcher 2 sessions were done 51 women 25 men 5 traditional leaders 2 land registrars 1 resident field researcher Were informal and semi-structured People open to share experiences They were authoritative figures in issues of land Provided useful information Established a good rapport with communities, hence people trusted and believed in them The raw data collected was not fabricated as they were not seen as strangers One session Communities envisioned how they would want their societies to look. This method gave an opportunity to community members to draw maps of their “future” in terms of women’s ownership as well as control over land in their area. Basically the researchers asked community members to describe their present situation by looking at the particular challenges women face and discuss how the situation can improve. Therefore the maps show their vision for the future, the improved situation. This was a joint exercise done by women and men. This was a useful exercise as it provided a forum to determine how local advocacy should be done and advanced. As the next step was to identify what should be done to reach the desirable state. Difficult when members of the same family are in the same group especially in patrilineal society, it becomes difficult for young women to speak freely when their mother in-laws are present It was rain season and so people were busy in the fields. There were also some festivities and so was difficult to get people Not very open to talk about their culture Difficult to find them for interviews as in most cases they are involved in resolving issues with their community With the limited time available for the research, it was not possible to do as many participant observations as possible People wanting immediate change forgetting that the change they wanted depended on other factors beyond them Women’s access to land and household bargaining power: a comparative action research project in patrilineal and matrilineal societies in Malawi | page 3
Page 3 and 4: Women’s access to land and househ
Page 5 and 6: Table of contents Acknowledgements
Page 7: Introduction WOLREC undertook this
Page 11 and 12: 2. Country context Malawi is a land
Page 13 and 14: Patrilineal Society: MZIMBA distric
Page 15 and 16: 4. Literature review Many anthropol
Page 17 and 18: 5. Legal framework The current land
Page 19 and 20: As Malawi is reviewing its laws, th
Page 21 and 22: entail too much dependence on offic
Page 23 and 24: time, land in the patrilineal socie
Page 25 and 26: 7. Women and land Land ownership in
Page 27 and 28: Control over land Control over land
Page 29 and 30: Figure 5: Resource control graph Th
Page 31 and 32: of that failing, then her brothers
Page 33 and 34: controlling household resources, la
Page 35 and 36: References Agarwal B. 1994b. A Fiel

Women's access to land and household bargaining power

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