promoting gender equitable opportunities in agricultural ... - weman

BELIEFS AND PERCEPTIONS AFFECT:✪✪ The gendered division of labor in the household and on the farm,which facilitates or impedes On-Farm Productivity;✪✪Ideas about the appropriateness of Employment opportunities formen and women;✪✪ Expectations about men’s and women’s behavior, which shapetheir interactions with institutions and govern the BusinessEnabling Environment.in domestic work (e.g., in foodpreparation) with the sensitive carethat delicate horticultural productslike strawberries needed to avoidhigh losses from bruising, but thesewere also lower-paid jobs that mendid not want. 25Beliefs about legal rightsSome studies suggest thatdiscriminatory beliefs about womenlead to differential treatment byregulatory officials. For example,a study in Kenya found thatgovernment officials enforceregulations differently for women. 26Gender-based intimidation wasa major issue reported in theinteraction between womenand civil servants. In this case,simply streamlining the licensingand registration processes willnot necessarily overcome theconstraints women face. Whileresearch suggests that womenare more likely to register theirbusinesses if procedures aresimplified, it is also important toensure that women are treatedfairly by regulation officials.LAWS, POLICIES, ANDINSTITUTIONSGender roles influence how peopleare regarded and treated by formaland informal laws, policies, andinstitutions. Gender affects rightsto legal documents, ownership andinheritance, representation, anddue process. Many formal laws andinstitutional practices outside of thehome erect barriers against women.Customary and statutory laws as wellas institutional policies often formalizeexisting beliefs and practices, someof which are discriminatory, but lawscan also be used to establish moreegalitarian practices.Legal rights to landIn agriculture, rights to land are critical.Studies highlight the importance ofsecure property rights for increasedagricultural productivity. 27 Secureproperty rights create incentives foragricultural investment and outputs.Furthermore, access to and controlover land is a cascading asset,meaning that land is often importantfor facilitating access to services,goods, and membership in the valuechain. For example, land facilitatesaccess to credit and membership inassociations. Many countries nowhave legal frameworks that affordboth men and women equal accessto land and property.In some situations, customary andstatutory law treats land accessdifferently; sometimes conflictsexist within statutory law ofdifferent types. In Botswana, forexample, land laws have not beenharmonized with marriage law tofacilitate women’s landownership. 28In Kenya, the Kenya RegisteredLand Act (RLA) allows for up tofive people to register as ownersof a plot of land. Plots are typicallyregistered solely in the name of thehead of household. According to theRLA, legislation overrides customaryrights unless they are registered.User rights of land are rarely notedon the register; thus, most often theregistration gives absolute title to theregistered landowner. In other cases,additional legal requirements mayconstrain women from registeringland. For example, in Guatemala,the law allows women to own land.However, one reason few womenare legal landowners is that theyoften lack legal identity cards, whichare required to register land.Legal rights to land are often linkedto marital status, where men’s andwomen’s rights in marriage aredefined differently under the law.The Kenyan Law of Succession,which governs inheritance rights,terminates a widow’s inheritancerights if she remarries, but awidower’s rights remain intact. InUganda, although legal provisionspermit women to inherit 15 percentof matrimonial property upon thedeath of her husband, womenare often not consulted about the23