Realising women’s land rights: law, gender and farming in Tanzania
The book Women, Land and Justice in Tanzania by Helen Dancer (University of Brighton) explores women’s claims to land in practice. Land rights and governance are often seen as essential in achieving food security, inclusive economic growth and sustainable development. The focus of this book is on the under-explored role of women and their experiences of land law reforms in the context of a ‘land rush and land-grabbing. It is based on fieldwork in northern Tanzania. This is a region with a high number of land conflicts and legal disputes. Taking the social nature of women’s claims to land as the starting-point, the book discusses the extent to which women are realising their interests in land through the legal system and through land courts. The author traces the progression of claims from their social origins, through legal processes of dispute resolution to judgment. She seeks to re-orientate current debates on women’s land rights to a focus on the law in action and explores how the country’s land law reforms have impacted on women’s legal claims to land. The book analyses the obstacles and pathways that women face, and the role of social, legal and political actors in processes of justice. Also see the blog by the author on Future Agricultures.