Book 'Gender and Agrarian Reforms' highlights the gendered impacts of global agrarian reform | Land Portal

Resource information

Date of publication: 
January 2009

Through case studies from Asia, Africa, eastern Europe and Latin America, this book by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Susie Jacobs presents an overview of global gender and agrarian reform experiences.  Recognising the widespread marginalisation of gender issues from policy and theoretical discussions of agrarian reform,  Jacobs attempts to highlight the profound implications that redistribution of land has for women and for gender relations.  The book compares land and agrarian reforms in which land has been redistributed collectively and to individual households.

Review of Gender and Agrarian Reforms by the Journal for Agricultural and Environmental Ethics;

”The book is divided into three parts, each containing three chapters, including the final chapter. Most of these chapters focus on one or more countries or world regions. Part I, ‘‘Theoretical Perspectives,’’ lays out the basic issues and concepts pertaining to agrarian reforms and introduces, at a general level, how these reforms impact women. Part II, ‘‘Collectivisation and Decollectivisation,’’ focuses on agrarian reforms under Soviet-type economies, such as China and Vietnam. This section also covers the ex-Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Cuba. Part III, ‘‘Household Models of Reform and Alternatives,’’ focuses on three countries in Latin America (Mexico, Nicaragua, and Brazil), and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, and Mozambique). This part also contains the concluding chapter in which Jacobs summarizes the book’s main points and discusses the conditions under which more equitable land reforms might take place.

One of the several strengths of this book is the holistic approach Jacobs takes. By combining factors embedded in the historical, political, cultural, and legal environments with the traditional and religious values of the countries and regions under consideration, the reader comes away with a fairly complete picture of how women fare under agrarian, and attempted, agrarian reforms. A recurring theme throughout the book, and one that Jacobs returns to again and again is the idea that in most of the countries and regions included as part of this study women are consistently not treated as being equal to—indeed, are considered (in some cases)—inferior to men...’’

To read more on Gender and Agrarian Reforms please visit the Routledge website

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