Women's rights to accessing and owning land in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and South Africa

Land and property ownership has in recent years been subject to debate, especially when looking into women’s rights to property. Women around the world are facing many barriers that prevent them from their rights to owning land. Even if women have a right to property or land ownership, there are other social norms and traditions, combined with laws that will highly restrict women from owning and managing property and land. Gender inequalities in property and land ownership throughout the world are pervasive. It is not only that women have less access to land as compared to men, but also that they are restricted to secondary land rights. In this case, it means that women hold land rights via the male family members. In such cases, women have a high risk of losing their entitlement to land because of widowhood, divorce or migration of their husbands. Evidence indicates that the land parcels owned by women are much smaller and are of a lower quality compared to men. This research aims to examine the guiding factors, such as religion, gender, marriage, inheritance, economics, and education that affect the land rights of women in some major countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and South African countries.Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementLiterature review -- Religion and gender -- Marriage -- Economy and employment -- Inheritance -- Education -- Discussion.Thesis (M.A.