Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries

Women's property ownership matters for their well-being and agency, broader economic prosperity, and children's development. However, until recently, a lack of data has constrained further exploration of gender differences in property ownership in the developing world. Using data from 41 d...

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Main Authors:	Gaddis, Isis, Lahoti, Rahul, Swaminathan, Hema
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Wiley 2022
Subjects:	GENDER GAPS LEGAL DISCRIMINATION PROPERTY OWNERSHIP INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INEQUALITY
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37806

id	okr-10986-37806
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-378062022-08-03T05:10:51Z Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries Gaddis, Isis Lahoti, Rahul Swaminathan, Hema GENDER GAPS LEGAL DISCRIMINATION PROPERTY OWNERSHIP INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INEQUALITY Women's property ownership matters for their well-being and agency, broader economic prosperity, and children's development. However, until recently, a lack of data has constrained further exploration of gender differences in property ownership in the developing world. Using data from 41 developing countries, this paper contributes to the literature by investigating gender gaps in the incidence of property ownership among couples and the factors associated with these gaps, focusing on the role of legal systems. We find that in almost all countries, husbands are more likely to own property than wives. Across countries in our sample, husbands are, on average, 2.7 times more like than wives to own property alone and 1.4 times more likely to own property alone or jointly. Within countries, gender gaps in the incidence of property ownership are most pronounced for disadvantaged groups, that is, the rural population and the poorest quintile. These gender gaps reflect a variety of factors, including discriminatory laws with respect to inheritance, property ownership, marital regimes, and laws that protect from workplace discrimination. Countries with more gender egalitarian legal regimes have higher levels of property ownership by married women, especially housing, suggesting that legal reforms are a potential mechanism to increase women's property ownership. 2022-08-02T12:58:02Z 2022-08-02T12:58:02Z 2022-06-08 Journal Article Population and Development Review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37806 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Wiley Publications & Research :: Journal Article
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	GENDER GAPS LEGAL DISCRIMINATION PROPERTY OWNERSHIP INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INEQUALITY
spellingShingle	GENDER GAPS LEGAL DISCRIMINATION PROPERTY OWNERSHIP INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INEQUALITY Gaddis, Isis Lahoti, Rahul Swaminathan, Hema Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries
description	Women's property ownership matters for their well-being and agency, broader economic prosperity, and children's development. However, until recently, a lack of data has constrained further exploration of gender differences in property ownership in the developing world. Using data from 41 developing countries, this paper contributes to the literature by investigating gender gaps in the incidence of property ownership among couples and the factors associated with these gaps, focusing on the role of legal systems. We find that in almost all countries, husbands are more likely to own property than wives. Across countries in our sample, husbands are, on average, 2.7 times more like than wives to own property alone and 1.4 times more likely to own property alone or jointly. Within countries, gender gaps in the incidence of property ownership are most pronounced for disadvantaged groups, that is, the rural population and the poorest quintile. These gender gaps reflect a variety of factors, including discriminatory laws with respect to inheritance, property ownership, marital regimes, and laws that protect from workplace discrimination. Countries with more gender egalitarian legal regimes have higher levels of property ownership by married women, especially housing, suggesting that legal reforms are a potential mechanism to increase women's property ownership.
format	Journal Article
author	Gaddis, Isis Lahoti, Rahul Swaminathan, Hema
author_facet	Gaddis, Isis Lahoti, Rahul Swaminathan, Hema
author_sort	Gaddis, Isis
title	Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries
title_short	Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries
title_full	Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries
title_fullStr	Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries
title_full_unstemmed	Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries
title_sort	women’s legal rights and gender gaps in property ownership in developing countries
publisher	Wiley
publishDate	2022
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37806
_version_	1764487903335940096

Women’s Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries

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