Is there a gender asset gap? This article examines the evidence available on the distribution of wealth by gender around the world and asks why we do not know more. One of the contributions of feminist economics has been to demonstrate that household and individual welfare are not necessarily the same. However, relatively little work has been done that disaggregates the ownership of assets within the household to determine how asset distribution affects the gendered pattern of wealth ownership overall or how it impacts household decisions and women's well-being. As an initial step in this project, a number of factors are examined that affect women's ability to accumulate wealth, with emphasis on marital and inheritance regimes. Finally, the myriad ways in which the gender distribution of wealth is important are discussed.Wealth, assets, gender inequality, marital regimes, inheritance, intrahousehold bargaining, JEL Codes: J16, D31, P48,

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Studies of gender inequality have usually focused on income, employment and education. This study, drawing on individual-level asset data for Ecuador, Ghana, and Karnataka, India, analyses the patterns of asset ownership between men and women. The gender gaps in assets and wealth differ from country to country depending on the type of asset examined, but generally favour men. In Ghana and Karnataka not only are women less likely to own assets, but they generally own assets that are less valuable, leading to a large gender wealth gap in favour of men. In Ecuador, where joint ownership of property acquired during marriage is the norm, the gender wealth gap is minimal. This study suggests that data on asset ownership is a useful measure of gender inequality and should be collected on a regular basis.

Este artigo examina a evolução da reivindicação dos direitos da mulher à terra na reforma agrária brasileira sob o prisma dos três principais movimentos sociais rurais: o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), os sindicatos rurais e o movimento autônomo de mulheres rurais. O mérito maior por levantar a questão dos direitos da mulher à terra é das mulheres dentro dos sindicatos rurais. Os direitos formais das mulheres à terra foram conseguidos na reforma constitucional de 1988, e em grande medida isso foi um subproduto do esforço para acabar com a discriminação contra as mulheres em todos as suas dimensões. A conquista das igualdades formais, contudo, não levou a um aumento na parcela de mulheres beneficiárias da reforma, a qual permaneceu baixa até a metade da década de 1990. Isso aconteceu principalmente porque garantir na prática os direitos da mulher à terra não estava entre as prioridades dos movimentos sociais rurais. Além disso, o principal movimento social a determinar o passo da reforma agrária, o (MST), considerava classe e gênero questões incompatíveis. Próximo ao final da década de 1990, entretanto, havia uma consciência crescente de que deixar de reconhecer os direitos da mulher à terra era prejudicial ao desenvolvimento e à consolidação dos assentamentos da reforma agrária e, portanto, para o movimento. O crescente consenso, entre todos os movimentos sociais rurais, sobre a importância em assegurar o direito da mulher à terra, junto com um lobby efetivo, encorajou o Estado em 2001 a adotar mecanismos específicos para a inclusão de mulheres na reforma agrária.

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

This article examines the evolution of the demand for women's land rights in the Brazilian agrarian reform through the prism of the three main rural social movements: the landless movement, the rural unions and the autonomous rural women's movement. Most of the credit for raising the issue of women's land rights rests with women within the rural unions. That women's formal land rights were attained in the constitutional reform of 1988 was largely a byproduct of the effort to end discrimination against women in all it dimensions. The achievement of formal equality in land rights, nonetheless, did not lead to increases in the share of female beneficiaries of the reform, which remained low in the mid-1990s. This was largely because securing women's land rights in practice was not a top priority of any of the rural social movements. Moreover, the main social movement determining the pace of the agrarian reform, the landless movement, considered class and gender issues to be incompatible. By the late 1990s, nonetheless, there was growing awareness that failure to recognize women's land rights was prejudicial to the development and consolidation of the agrarian reform settlements and thus the movement. The growing consensus among all the rural social movements of the importance of securing women's land rights, coupled with effective lobbying, encouraged the State in 2001 to adopt specific mechanisms for the inclusion of women in the agrarian reform.