Countries: Nigeria
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

“There are also legal provisions recognising married women’s right to acquire, own, maintain and dispose of their own property such as in: Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, and The Gambia” (17). “During divorce proceedings in Nigeria, the approach of courts to dividing marital property after divorce has tended to privilege men. Courts use direct financial contribution as the basis for division of matrimonial property. However, this power should be exercised to recognise non-financial contributions to the property and to the marriage in general, so that economically weaker spouses (generally women) are not unfairly disadvantaged” (17).

Countries: Gambia
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1, LO-LAW-1

“There are also legal provisions recognising married women’s right to acquire, own, maintain and dispose of their own property such as in: Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, and The Gambia” (17).

Countries: South Africa
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1, LO-LAW-1, IAW-PRACTICE-1, IAW-LAW-1

“However, legal reforms have sought to address these disparities by recognising and protecting women’s rights to matrimonial property. Matrimonial property laws in Africa have undergone significant developments in recent years, aiming to promote gender equality and protect women's rights within marital relationships. These laws address the distribution of property and assets acquired during marriage, acknowledging women’s contributions to the family and economic well-being. Many countries now have legal provisions calling for equitable distribution of matrimonial property that take into account direct and indirect contributions such as in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa. In Cameroon, case law has established that both spouses have equal matrimonial property ownership rights. Such...more

Countries: Kenya
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

“However, legal reforms have sought to address these disparities by recognising and protecting women’s rights to matrimonial property. Matrimonial property laws in Africa have undergone significant developments in recent years, aiming to promote gender equality and protect women's rights within marital relationships. These laws address the distribution of property and assets acquired during marriage, acknowledging women’s contributions to the family and economic well-being. Many countries now have legal provisions calling for equitable distribution of matrimonial property that take into account direct and indirect contributions such as in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa. In Cameroon, case law has established that both spouses have equal matrimonial property ownership rights. Such...more

Countries: Egypt
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

“In some cases, upon divorce, the matrimonial property of a woman is tied to the custody of the child. In Egypt for instance, upon divorce, the wife may keep the matrimonial home when she has custody of the child but loses this privilege when the children reach the age of majority or when she loses custody” (17).

Countries: Botswana
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

“Spousal consent is required for certain legal transactions, such as the disposal of jointly owned property where the marriage is in community of property, but since this requirement applies equally to husbands and wives, it acts as a protective mechanism for women who were previously disenfranchised without their knowledge in countries such as Botswana and Kenya” (17). “Women married out of community of property are at a further disadvantage. In Botswana, the economically weaker spouse (generally the wife) will be greatly disadvantaged if during the marriage she had, for example, spent her time looking after the family, household and children while her husband worked. Despite her contribution to the joint...more

Countries: China
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1, LO-LAW-1, LO-DATA-3

“A 2011 interpretation by the Supreme People’s Court specifies that unless legally challenged, marital property essentially belongs to the individual whose name appears on the property deed. In modern China, this individual is usually a man. A 2012 survey by Horizon China and iFeng.com of home buying in China’s leading real-estate markets revealed that only 30 percent of marital home deeds include the woman’s name, even though over 70 percent of women contribute to the purchase of the marital home” (para 26).

Countries: Mongolia
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

"Although the Constitution of Mongolia, the Civil Code, and the Law on Allocation of Land to Citizens of Mongolia provide equal access to land and property rights, women’s right to own property is still limited by certain factors. According to the NSO’s 2018 survey, men own almost two times as many dwellings (homes) as women, 3-6 times more of agricultural lands, and 1.5 times as much for other real estates. Traditional attitudes towards gender and women’s lack of awareness of property rights are major barriers to gender equality" (35).

Countries: United States
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

"In Navajo Nation, Roanhorse, who is a Diné citizen, said many of those hurdles to business ownership are also bureaucratic. The application for business registration alone requires applicants to prove they’re Navajo citizens and they must work with a Regional Business Development Office, but there are only five of those offices across the entire Nation, which is the size of West Virginia. Old infrastructure and limited staffing lead to long waitlists and delays. A process that took Roanhorse three hours to complete in New Mexico took her about three months in the Navajo Nation. Native entrepreneurs also have to contend with unique challenges, like what kind of collateral they even...more

Countries: Kenya
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

"Most mornings, Agnes and her brother, in matching lime green tights and black T shirts, would lace up their sneakers and join other runners. The young woman's success had begun to transform her family's fortunes. 'Agnes had made it and was lifting our family out of poverty,' Martin tells CNN. 'My parents had lived in a grass-thatched house all their lives until she bought them land and built them a brick house. She'd brought us so much hope'" (par. 17).

Countries: Indonesia
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

"In 2010 Komnas Perempuan found that there were 395 women became victims of eviction through intimidation, physical and psychological violence, sexual abuse, arrest, and criminalization" (17). "In 2018, Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago organized a survey which showed that 76.8% of indigenous women testified that development aggression has had impacts on their land seizures. They are afraid to reclaim their land because they were traumatized by being criminalized, fined, threatened by police officers with mobile brigade corps fully armed, and they were even arrested" (18).

Countries: Cambodia
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

"2019 research on access to credit shows that access to credit in rural areas is often limited to predatory lenders and/or microfinance institutions. These are not just a few specialized businesses, but include some of the largest banks in Cambodia. Moreover, 75% of microfinance borrowers are women , so they are disproportionately affected by trends in this industry. Lenders not only charge inappropriately high interest rates and knowingly extend loans to persons unable to pay the debt back, but they use land titles as collateral. In the event of default, the lenders will seize land whose value is many times that of the debt without paying the difference to the...more

Countries: Venezuela
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

"Between 2014 and 2020, women’s access to credit was expanded both by private and by public banks. Since 2017, at least 45 per cent of loans extended by public banks were reserved for female entrepreneurs. As a result of the policies adopted, women now form the majority of recipients of loans for small and medium-sized industries from public banks. The unilateral coercive measures have impacted credit, causing a decline in the absolute volume of loans that started in 1918 and mainly affected private banks" (27). Table 3, titled “Loans for men and women, by year: Private banks” shows that the number of women receiving loans from private banks increased from...more

Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

"Marrying a cousin guarantees wealth and property stays in the family. It is also believed that if the bride is a relative, she will be more dedicated in looking after her husband's family" (par. 11).

Countries: Costa Rica
Variables: LO-PRACTICE-1

"[R]ural women have limited access to land titles and ownership" (10). "[I]t notes with concern: (a) Cases of forced evictions of Indigenous women and women of African descent from lands traditionally occupied or used by them and the dispossession of such lands by private non-State actors" (10-11).