Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002

In the last decades there are many changes in land policies affecting women's land rights. Major problems affected women's land rights due to no explicit provision to ensure gender equity in land allocation. The Dzao people followed their traditional norms, men are obvious representative of the family, women's rights to land follow the traditional practices. By interviewing 15 women in 35 households in the village, this work examines the impact of land allocation on indigenous women through women's access to land and women's rights to land before, during and after collectivization periods. Considering the body of information in th~ case studies as a whole, the study examines women's land rights through land use patterns and land tenure systems of the Dzao and the gender division of labor. It was found that although women work very hard and contribute more labor force to land cultivation than their rights to land are not recognized. The result shows that after the land allocation to individual households, women have more rights to access to land but also have too heavy burden in productive and reproductive work. They are also responsible for forest protection tasks due to husbands being away from home for wage labor.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science. School of Environment, Resources and Development