Structures and processes: land,families, and gender relations

The author points to the existence of a striking similarity in some of the effects of land reform upon gender relations and women's family positions. This is so despite the variation in land reform processes and in the cultures in which they occur. Family and kinship patterns both affect, and are affected by, land reform. This two-way relationship is examined, with particular attention given to the author's study of northeastern Zimbabwean Resettlement Areas, conducted during the mid-1980s, and Agarwal's 1994 study of women and land rights in South Asia. Sections discuss the effects of land reform; family formation, family relationships, and land; family and land in South Asia; reforms which disadvantage women; benefits for women of land reform; and the Zimbabwean case study.