Browsing by Author "Wallin, Maaria"
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Wallin, Maaria (2014)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.
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Wallin, Maaria (2020)This thesis provides information of the unjust geographies of girls and assesses empirical data on girls’ access to and through secondary education in Tanzania by using a case study approach. This study focuses on girls’ education in rural Mtwara because of its utmost importance. First, an internationally accepted human rights-based perceptive on girls’ education is present. Second, gender equality in and through secondary education has a direct and indirect effect on the reduction of overall poverty: employment and increased decision-making capabilities modify family opinions that further advance girls’ education and future asset accumulation that indirectly benefits the wider society. Rural Mtwara was chosen as a case study since it is characterized by particularly low secondary-school attendance and poor academic performance of girls. A number of variables affect access to education, including family and social factors as well as those related to the learning environment itself. Outside donors and governments can also affect the outcome. This study investigates the role of families in structuring the secondary school access of girls in low-income rural households, and it examines the individual, cultural, environmental, and economic factors that shape girls’ access to education in the rapidly changing environment of rural Mtwara. This study qualitatively explores how girls’ graduation from secondary school has benefitted both their lives and their families’ lives, especially in economic terms, and increased girls’ access to other spaces such as employment in a segregated society. Gender equal access remains a core issue of this study.
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