Women, Land Rights, and Economic Empowerment Under Legal Reform in Rural Morocco
Open Access DepositedContested Ground
Downloadable Content
The dissertation examines the relationship between women’s access to collective land and economic empowerment in Morocco following the 2019 legal reform recognizing women’s right to land after more than a century of exclusion. Collective land, held by lineage-based communities and accounting for nearly one-fifth of the national territory, has historically been allocated and transferred exclusively from men to men, marginalizing women despite their central role in agricultural production. The reform sought to redress this inequality by granting women rights to land use, inheritance, and benefit-sharing. However, implementation faces persistent institutional and social constraints that limit its transformative potential, and a focus on the legal right alone does not fully account for the gendered power relations that shape women’s ability to exercise this legal right. This study addresses two interrelated questions
how women’s access to collective land affects economic empowerment, and what barriers continue to shape women’s ability to effectively realize land rights despite legal recognition, including social norms, family dynamics, and institutional practices. Employing a mixed-methods research design that combines qualitative fieldwork and a quantitative case study, and that delineates between irrigated and non-irrigated land dynamics, the dissertation provides integrated insights into reform implementation and empirical evidence on the relationship between land access and empowerment. The findings show that Morocco’s 2019 collective land reform has produced limited substantive change for most women in irrigated perimeters, with persistent de facto exclusion and modest gains. Qualitative interviews and focus groups reveal the importance of relational bargaining environments and institutional mediation structures. Women’s ability to negotiate and navigate men’s resistance is paramount. Quantitative results indicate that while basic land access in non-irrigated areas is not significantly associated with women’s economic empowerment, both land size and duration of access are positively and significantly associated with empowerment, suggesting that gains stem from sustained and productive land use rather than nominal rights alone. Causal estimates reveal that land access does not yield a statistically significant effect on empowerment, whereas participation in land-related decision-making emerges as a more influential driver, underscoring the importance of agency beyond formal rights. The overall findings highlight that structural constraints, particularly male resistance, weak governance, and limited institutional support, continue to shape outcomes, while legal aid plays a critical enabling role. The study underscores that legal reform alone is insufficient
women’s land rights function as a conditional mechanism of empowerment, requiring institutional support, accountability, and complementary measures to translate formal equality into meaningful and sustained change.
- All rights reserved
Notice to Authors
If you are the author of this work and you have any questions about the information on this page, please use the Contact form to get in touch with us.