The present research endeavor consists of a preliminary documentary investigation which paves the way towards a larger future study focusing on Moroccan women who have benefited from government initiatives like the “Centre D'inclusion des Femmes au Foncier” (CIFF) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in empowering them, more specifically, through land ownership. Hence, this chapter provides background information in relation to women empowerment through land ownership and aims to highlight the achievements of the Moroccan government and CIFF in meeting predefined objectives. It's part of a broader vision to address legal, social, and customary barriers hindering women's access to land and to promote their active involvement in land governance.
TopWomen's Land Ownership And Empowerment
Women often face challenges regarding access and control of land resources which hinders their empowerment. In multiple countries, women are considered as guardians of land, in other words they are preserving it for their children, mainly their sons, which reflects gender inequalities in property rights (Kartik, 2000). The existence of laws concerning property rights and constitutional references related to gender equality does not guarantee equal positioning of men and women in terms of land ownership and control (Pallas, 2011).
In legal terminology, empowerment is often linked with protecting and ensuring women’s land rights. It enables women to make choices confidently and independently in the political, economic, and social spheres. It is a multi-faceted operation involving the transformation of power relations mainly through allowing access to resources, shrinking social disparities, and modifying the institutional structures that reinforce existing power dynamics (Pallas, 2011).
Women’s economic empowerment is significantly hindered by their unequal access to land. In the developing world, women contribute heavily to produce food, yet they usually lack ownership and control over the land they work on and their work goes unnoticed. This disparity emphasizes the importance of increasing awareness of gender related issues, through a combination of legal education and implementing effective strategies to alleviate poverty (Ghimire, 2024).
On the one hand, women’s access to land is crucial for advocating for gender equality and sustainable development. On the other hand, land ownership guarantees for women a solid food base production, stable income source, loan collateral, possibility to have savings, and most importantly, it contributes to the defining of their cultural identity. Equal access to land is a huge milestone in human rights development but also it leads to the reduction of domestic violence, expansion of agricultural production and nutritional security (Handbook on the OECD-DAC Gender Equality Policy Marker, 2016).