Introduction: Women, Property and Land

Women, Land and Property, Then and Now: An Afterword

“…Gender gaps in ownership of and access to land and other property persist in the UK, Europe and North America. 9 The United Nations estimates that women make up ten to fifteen per cent of agricultural landholders in much of Northern Europe and the USA, while the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency estimates that between ten and twenty per cent of landholders in developing countries are women. 10 As colleagues and I have observed elsewhere, this is a figure remarkably consistent with what we know of women's landholding and ownership in early modern and eighteenth-century England.…”

“…10 As colleagues and I have observed elsewhere, this is a figure remarkably consistent with what we know of women's landholding and ownership in early modern and eighteenth-century England. 11 Centuries of gender inequality regarding property have long-term consequences today, not least because early modern English property relations were transported to many areas of the world under British colonialism and imperialism. This is why these feminist and critical histories and historical geographies are crucially important todaythey help us to understand gendered property relations as we encounter them in the contemporary world, as well as demonstrating the distance we still have to go in addressing 'the gender gap' as it relates to land and property.…”