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A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia » (New Edition)

Book cover image of A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia by Bina Agarwal

Authors: Bina Agarwal
ISBN-13: 9780521429269, ISBN-10: 0521429269
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date Published: February 1995
Edition: New Edition

Author Biography: Bina Agarwal

Book Synopsis

An analysis of gender and property throughout South Asia which argues that the most important economic factor affecting women is the gender gap in command over property.

	List of Illustrations
	List of tables
	Preface
1	Land rights for women: making the case	1
I	The backdrop	2
II	Gender, property, and land: some conceptual links	11
III	Why do women need independent rights in land?	27
IV	Questions addressed, information base, and the book's structure	45
2	Conceptualizing gender relations	51
I	Gender relations within the household/family	53
II	Gender relations outside the household/family: the market, the community, and the State	71
III	Interactions: the household/family: the community, and the State	80
3	Customary rights and associated practices	82
I	Which communities customarily recognized women's rights in land?	83
II	Women's land rights in traditionally matrilineal and bilateral communities	100
III	Women's land rights, structural conditionalities, and gender relations	133
4	Erosion and disinheritance: traditionally matrilineal and bilateral communities	153
I	India	154
II	Sri Lanka	180
5	Contemporary laws: contestation and content	198
I	India	199
II	Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Muslims in India	227
III	Sri Lanka	237
IV	Nepal	242
V	Summary comments on women's legal rights in landed property in South Asia	246
6	Whose share? Who claims? The gap between law and practice	249
I	The gap between law and practice in traditionally patrilineal communities	249
II	Barriers to women inheriting land in traditionally patrilineal communities	260
III	Glimmer of change: women claim inheritance shares in some traditionally patrilineal communities	282
IV	A look at traditionally matrilineal and bilateral communities	285
V	Some hypotheses	291
7	Whose land? Who commands? The gap between ownership and control	292
I	Women's ability to retain their land	292
II	Control over the transfer and use of land	294
III	Barriers to women self-managing land	298
8	Tracing cross-regional diversities	316
I	Some hypotheses	317
II	Information sources	321
III	The cross-regional patterns	325
IV	An overview of regional patterns	368
9	Struggles over resources, struggles over meanings	421
I	On women's consciousness and individual resistance	422
II	Group resistance: struggles over privatized land	438
III	Group resistance: claiming rights in public land	434
IV	Further observations on gender construction and group contestation	458
10	The long march ahead	467
I	Recapitulation	468
II	Some suggestions, some dilemmas	478
III	The macro-scenario	493
	Definitions	505
	Glossary	507
	References	510
	Index	553