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Women's Empowerment in Rwanda: The Respective Roles of Courts and Policy

Women's Empowerment in Rwanda: The Respective Roles of Courts and Policy I. INTRODUCTION It is widely recognised that women all over the world disproportionately suffer disadvantage compared to men due largely to cultural practices and distortions. The majority of women in sub-Saharan Africa tend to be even more disadvantaged and to live in poverty due to their lack of education and skills, the responsibilities placed upon them to take care of the home and family and their inability to access property and other resources which are controlled by men. Cultural and structural institutions conspire to deprive women of both property and economic agency. Women spend vastly greater amounts of time on child care and domestic duties than men, leaving little to no time for engagement with the market.1 In such households, poverty is readily heritable by girl children as women delegate responsibilities to older girls, who are then forced to leave school and take on household duties, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.2 Women's poverty in much of Africa is worsened by their lack of rights to land. Patriarchal traditions typically prohibit women from owning immovable property in the first place.3 A married woman may have conditional access to and use of her husband's land, but she is not likely http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png African Journal of International and Comparative Law Edinburgh University Press

Women's Empowerment in Rwanda: The Respective Roles of Courts and Policy

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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press 2016
Subject
Articles; African Studies
ISSN
0954-8890
eISSN
1755-1609
DOI
10.3366/ajicl.2016.0169
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTION It is widely recognised that women all over the world disproportionately suffer disadvantage compared to men due largely to cultural practices and distortions. The majority of women in sub-Saharan Africa tend to be even more disadvantaged and to live in poverty due to their lack of education and skills, the responsibilities placed upon them to take care of the home and family and their inability to access property and other resources which are controlled by men. Cultural and structural institutions conspire to deprive women of both property and economic agency. Women spend vastly greater amounts of time on child care and domestic duties than men, leaving little to no time for engagement with the market.1 In such households, poverty is readily heritable by girl children as women delegate responsibilities to older girls, who are then forced to leave school and take on household duties, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.2 Women's poverty in much of Africa is worsened by their lack of rights to land. Patriarchal traditions typically prohibit women from owning immovable property in the first place.3 A married woman may have conditional access to and use of her husband's land, but she is not likely

Journal

African Journal of International and Comparative Law – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Nov 1, 2016

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