Paper short abstract:

How agricultural production relations, rooted in cultural norms regarding sexual division of labour, affects women’s access to land is not well explored. The paper examines the social conception of women’s role in agricultural production, and how that influences their access to agricultural land.

Paper long abstract:

The fact that land rights in Africa are gendered is well documented with several studies pointing to numerous reasons for such discriminatory access. Some studies note the direct connection between land access and agricultural productivity. The manner in which agricultural production relations, deeply rooted in cultural norms regarding sexual division of labour, facilitates or inhibits women's access to land is not well explored. The paper, is an attempt to understand how agricultural production relations determine the social conception of women's role in agricultural production, and how that in turn influences their access to agricultural land. Drawing from a broader empirical work conducted in the Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and Upper East Regions of Ghana, the paper argues that the social positioning of women in agricultural production relations is the fundamental constraint to their access to land, and on this hinges all the other inhibiting factors. The importance of building knowledge about the agricultural production relations in sub-Saharan Africa for analytical and policy purposes is therefore espoused in the paper.

Key Words: Agriculture, Gender, Ghana, Land, Production-Relations, Women

This paper has been developed in collaboration with Angela Akorsu.