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This compendium provides an improved understanding of the complex issues concerning gender and land. It draws on research commissioned by FAO. The authors argue that hunger and poverty are, in general, consequences of inadequate and restricted access to land and other resources, such as capital, inputs and technology; women are among those with less access to land, while accounting for a large share in small-scale food production.Rights to land, especially women’s rights to land, are determined by a complex interaction between the institutions, and underlying power relations, of a society. The paper pinpoints what these are in general, with illustrations from case studies. Drawing on this background, the analysis demonstrates the various ways in which women are constrained in obtaining and enforcing their land rights. Finally, women’s land access experiences in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia are summarised to provide referents from which women’s development in the future can be considered.The document considers various issues surrounding land and gender including:customary institutions and gender relations traditional marriage practices as determinants of women’s land rights in sub-Saharan Africa Brazil and the legal status of women in the context of agrarian reform women’s access to land in Nicaragua
