Property Rights

Divergent Challenges and Progress Globally

Property rights are not completely equal for women vis-à-vis men in any country of the world, despite the fact that women can individually acquire, sell, own, and transfer property; keep and collect rents; and keep control over their own wages in many world areas.

In fact, several countries of the developing world adopted significant reforms in these matters during the second half of the 20th century. One example is the Chinese government-sponsored Marriage Law (1950) that established standards of equal rights for women and men with respect to marriage, divorce, and custody of children. In the 1980s, Colombia and Costa Rica introduced land reform that explicitly addressed gender inequalities in inheritance and expanded considerably women's land ownership. In 1997, Mozambique revised the Land Law, giving women a chance to become individual owners when 10 years of usufruct over land was proved. A loose coalition composed of the highest Egyptian government leaders and groups from civil society broadened women's rights under Family Law there in early 2000.

Law reforms are not enough, however, since legal and political rights alone do not guarantee equality in Europe, Asia, America, Africa, or Oceania due to cultural, political, and economic interferences. There is often a gap, at times huge, between formal and real equality in property rights for women.

More often than not, property rights refer to land or family-related property and thus are linked to marriage and family laws. This is because, historically, a woman's property has usually, though fortunately not always, been under the control of her father (or her brother, if orphaned), and when married, her husband. In many countries, the law has generally followed that of the mother countries, being England, France, or Spain, among other former colonial powers. The United States, for instance, used to follow British law, and thus women's property was under the control of their husbands until the beginning of the 20th century, when several states introduced important reforms in women's access to property.

Dowry and Bride Price

Property rights for women have often been and continue to be dependent upon marriage due to dowry and bride price arrangements. These payments mean a transfer of property (land or other goods) between families, as well as of the custody of offspring. Sometimes, such payments are returnable when or if the marriage ends.

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