Women’s arduous struggle for control of land

While rural development strategies have integrated the presence of women in production units, the locally dominant ideology is patriarchal and still frequently puts a man in charge of allocating and managing factors of production. In almost all African contexts, land, inputs, credit, and equipment management are still subject to male dominance. Even where the law guarantees equal rights, women often experience de facto discrimination. The search for solutions is based on observation of a correlation among three elements: the decision-making powers held by women, the quantity (and quality) of land rights they hold, and the increase in the local availability of foodstuffs.