Field's of one's own: gender and land rights in South Asia

Economic analysis and policies concerning women have long been preoccupied with employment. In a radical shift of focus, Professor Agarwal argues that the single most important economic factor affecting women's situation is the gender gap in command over property.

In rural South Asia, the most significant form of property is arable land. a critical determinant of economic well-being, social status, and empower ment. However, few South Asian women own land, and even fewer control it. In a comprehensive and rigorous analysis that draws upon a wide range of historical, economic, legal, and ethnographic sources and her own field research, the author investigates the complex reasons for this gender gap, and examines how existing barriers to women's land owner ship and control might be overcome. Regional variations on these counts across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Nepal, and Sri Lanka are also identified. The study extends the boundaries of economic analysis to explore the interface of economics, culture, and gender politics through an interdisciplinary approach. It examines women's covert and overt resis tance to gender inequality, especially in the context of land struggles. And it offers new theoretical insights by extending the 'bargaining approach to illuminate how gender relations get constituted and contested, both within and outside the household.

A field of one's own is the first major study on gender and property in South Asia. It makes significant contributions to current debates on land reform, women's status, and the nature of resistance. Its compelling and original argument will interest scholars, students, policy makers, and activists.