Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Environmental Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 354-372). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNR11548

I examine whether policies that specifically target gender inequality improve the well-being of women and girls. In the first paper I study the impact of Ethiopia’s gendered land certification programs on household consumption patterns and infant and under-five mortality. After years of communism during which all land was nationalized, in 1998, Ethiopia embarked on a land tenure reform program. The reform began in Tigray region where land certificates were issued to household heads, who were largely male. In a second phase carried out during 2003-2005, three other regions, Amhara, Oromia, and SNNP, issued land certificates jointly to household heads and spouses, presenting variation in land tenure security by gender. I leverage this variation in land certification across regions and over time, to study whether inclusion of women yielded different effects. Using data from the Ethiopia Demographic and Household Surveys and longitudinal data from the Ethiopia Rural Household Survey I construct a treatment group of male-headed households in joint land certification regions and a comparison group of male-headed households in Tigray and study changes between the two groups after implementation of their respective land certification programs. I find that, compared to household-head land certification, joint certification was accompanied by increased household consumption of food, health care, women’s clothing, and girls’ clothing, and a decrease in girls’ infant and under-five mortality. These effects are largely restricted to households with illiterate mothers indicating that inclusion of women in land tenure reform empowered previously disempowered women who then used their improved position to allocate more household resources to their daughters. In the second paper, I examine the relationship between women's land ownership and participation in transactional sex, multiple sexual partnerships and unprotected sex, and HIV infection status. Using a sample of 5,511 women working in the agricultural sector from the 1998, 2003 and 2008–09 Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys, I find that women's land ownership is associated with fewer sexual partners in the past year and lower likelihood of engaging in transactional sex, indicators of reduced survival sex, but is not associated with unprotected sex with casual partners, indicating no difference in safer sex negotiation. Land ownership is also associated with reduced HIV infection among women most likely to engage in survival sex, i.e., women not under the household headship of a husband, but not among women living in husband-headed households, for whom increased negotiation for safer sex would be more relevant. The third paper examines the prevalence of son preference in families of East and South Asian origin living in the United States by investigating parental time investments in children using American Time Use Surveys. The results show that East and South Asian mothers spend more total time and more quality time with their young (aged 0-5 years) sons than with young daughters while fathers’ time with young children is gender neutral. I find gender specialization in time with children aged 6-17 with fathers spending more time with sons and mothers spending more time with daughters. These findings document health and social consequences of gender inequities within households. The findings also highlight that gender-sensitive policies have the potential to transform intrahousehold dynamics and help realize gender equality policy objectives.

The study has been prompted by the gap that exists regarding gender and land in Zimbabwean fiction. The study therefore seeks to interrogate the gender and land ownership discourse in Shona fiction in relation to the current conflict of access to land by race, class and gender. The study therefore examines the following fictional works; Feso (1956), Dzasukwa-Mwana-Asina-Hembe (1967), Pafunge (1972), Kuridza Ngoma Nedemo (1985), Vavariro (1990) and Sekai Minda Tave Nayo (2005). Of significance is the fact that the selected fictional works traverse the different historical periods that Zimbabwe as a nation has evolved through. Apart from analysing the selected fictional works, the study also collected data through open-ended interviews and questionnaires to triangulate findings from the fictional works. The selected fictional writers present the different experiences of black Zimbabweans through land loss and the strategies taken by the indigenous people in trying to regain their lost heritage, the land. The exegesis of the selected fictional works is guided by Afro-centred perspectives of Africana Womanism and Afrocentricity. Findings from most of the selected fictional works reveals the selective exclusion of blacks, both male and female, from accessing land and other vital resources from the colonial right up to post-independence periods in Zimbabwe. The study observes that Shona traditional culture accorded both genders the requisite space in terms of land ownership in the pre-colonial period. The study also establishes that colonialism through its numerous legislations stripped black men and women of the fertile land which they formerly collectively owned. The study also establishes that disillusioned black men and women worked extremely hard to regain their lost land as reflected in the unsanctioned land grabs as well as the government sanctioned Fast Track Land Reform Programme. Recommendations for future research include the expansion of such research to include works of fiction in other languages as well as different genres. Future land policies stand to benefit from the inclusion of women in decision making since women the world over have been confirmed as workers of the land. This is likely to deal with the gender divide regarding land ownership patterns both within and outside Zimbabwe. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)