Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender, Authority and the Politics of Land Reform

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates the changing role of women and leadership. Using land access as the lens, the project will explore the social and economic status of women in a country where many consider gender equality to be the norm. Men are returning home from working in mines and a sweeping land reform process is changing how land is held in Lesotho. The project centers on three research questions: (1) How and why has access to land for men and women changed as men have returned and since new laws were enacted in the last decade? (2) Is there a geography of land that is allocated to women and how has that geography changed over time? (3) Are leaders seeking to maintain their power over land allocation? If so, how do their land control maneuvers affect both men's and women's access to land? These questions will be answered in a village setting in Lesotho with eight months of qualitative fieldwork, including surveys, interviews and focus groups with local residents and chiefs. Additional work will focus on interviews with policymakers, bureaucrats and development experts in the capital, Maseru. This study will explore multiple scales of gender politics in terms of land committees in Lesotho. The project will enhance understanding of the social, political, economic and cultural conditions that lead to increased or reduced vulnerability of women's livelihoods. Gender is a key indicator of vulnerability; understanding how women can obtain more secure land rights is a powerful tool in mitigating vulnerability. The analysis will also make a contribution to the literature of authority. It seeks to understand the role of Lesotho's chieftaincy in a changing political-economic context. In terms of authority, the study expands ideas of co-optation of chiefs by the state and investigates what happens when elements of the chieftaincy are empowered at the same time as an elected local body (in fact, within that very body). The project seeks to help understand gender relations in a holistic way that may enhance understanding of the feminization of the AIDS crisis. Additionally, there is a clear policy implication to this work: land reform in Lesotho and throughout the developing world is an ongoing process and this study will identify pathways towards fairer distribution. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.