Browsing by Author "Wallin, Maaria"

The purpose of this study is to create empirical data about the correlation between land ownership and the social security of women in Tanzania. The majority of the Tanzanian population depends on land for their livelihood, therefore arable land is the most important form of property in many rural areas. Normally women are given no rights to land in patrilineal inheritance areas, despite the fact that they are responsible for almost all food production and they are the majority of the rural population in Tanzania. Female land rights should become an important part in rural development policy, because land rights not only enhance material but also social welfare of women: landowning affects directly the welfare and freedom, and indirectly through influencing social change. Women’s lack of rights over land and property can contribute to women experiencing violence. Several studies have demonstrated that violence affects at least one third of women worldwide. Especially in patrilineal areas where patriarchal attitudes with inferior position of women in marriage and in society are socially acceptable. Marital violence has far reaching consequences. It is not a private matter when it causes physical and psychological harm to women and these harms will also be transmitted to the next generations. Marital violence is deteriorating the whole society, for instance like spreading HIV/AIDS. Ownership of land expands women’s capabilities and negotiating power outside and within marriage, and also works as a protective factor against violence by increasing bargaining power in different arenas of household, community and state. This study documents the mechanisms that can help explain how land ownership leads to decreased violence towards women. The case study was performed in patrilineal rural Njombe, where women are most in need of secure land tenure. Especially widows are vulnerable to land grabbing by the deceased husbands relatives. There are different strategies for women to resist the patriarchal system. The interviewed widows have been involved in land disputes and they have contested the boundaries of customary law by operating within the sphere of statutory law. Tanzania’s advanced statutory law is trying to replace the old patriarchal customary land tenure by enhancing women land titling, therefore it provides good framework for gender struggle over land.