Does the matrilineality make a difference? Land, kinship and women's empowerment in Bobonaro district, Timor-Leste

Abstract

This article investigates the roles that land rights and kinship norms have on rural women’s empowerment in the Bobonaro district of Timor-Leste. To this aim, a case study was carried out, using a questionnaire survey to compare three kinship groups (harmonic matrilineal, matrilineal and patrilineal). The land rights considered are ownership and control. The measurement of empowerment is based on three questions relating to household decision-making. Women’s autonomy and participation in decisions are also analyzed. The data presented show the importance of not only the ownership of land, but also effective and independent women’s land rights and the kinship system to women’s empowerment. Therefore, in order to contribute to gender equality, land policies should take gender and kinship into close consideration.

Keywords:

• Women
• land
• kinship
• empowerment
• Timor-Leste

Notes

1 Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 SDGs was adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York in September 2015, the global indicator framework was later adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017 (please see UN 2017).

2 Resolution (A/RES/73/165) adopting the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. Specific rights recognized by the Declaration include the right to adequate food, land and water.

3 Special Regime for the Ownership of Immovable Property, Law 13/2017, of 5 June 2017.

4 Expropriations’ Law - Law 8/2017, of 26 April 2017.

5 Elected local leaders, suco is a minor administrative unit in East Timor (similar to village).

6 For details on this concept, see Agarwal 1994, especially chapter 1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vanda Jesus Santos Narciso

Vanda Jesus Santos Narciso has a master in “Women Studies” from Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Besides her main professional activity, as information and innovation manager, she does some work as trainer and independent researcher. Her main fields of research are gender and development, human rights, land rights, microfinancing and Timor-Leste.

Pedro Damião Sousa Henriques

Pedro Damião Sousa Henriques is an associate professor of agricultural economics at the University of Évora, Portugal. He teaches mainly courses in the field of agricultural and resource economics and policies. His main research interests are in the field of agricultural efficiency; water policy and human rights; land, gender and development.