Gender, socio-economic status and land rights: the case of Bo District, Sierra Leone

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship and interactions between gender, socio-economic status and land rights in the Bo District of Sierra Leone. The study is based on the interpretivism philosophical paradigm and the deductive approach. The case study strategy was used to conduct the study in the Bo District in Sierra Leone. The study used primary and secondary approaches to data gathering. A sample of 12 women was obtained from a women’s group that is supported by Action Plus through education and training on land rights issues. The sample of 12 interviewees was generated using the critical case sampling method. The sample of women was made up of women who received training in Action Plus’s women empowerment programme. The women that were included in the study were aged between 18 and 60 and they were from different ethnicities such as the Mende, Kone and Temne and socio-economic classes such as income and education levels. Primary data was collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Insightful findings emerged from a gender roles analysis and application of the theory of access to the findings. The rights-based mechanism of access was found to work against the access of land by women because it is guided by customary laws which dictate that land should be controlled by male family heads even though women have access to and farm these lands. Relational and structural access mechanisms of the access that emerged from the study included marriage and support from male family heads. Regarding the influence of socio-economic factors on women’s access to and control over land, was that ethnicity did not have an implication on land access and control rights of the participants. This is because the customary norms of men being household heads and men owning and controlling the family land runs across different ethnicities. The factors of income level, educational level, marriage, household leadership were found to influence the extent to which women could access and control land. For instance, higher income level can enable a woman to purchase private land outside community or family owned land. Married women could get access to their husband’s land of family land but they may not have full control over the land as decisions are made by the male leaders in the family. Because of the male succession of land, women cannot have adequate access to and control over land that belonged to their husbands or families regardless of their age or income status without support of male relatives. Regarding age, while older women are given respect and may be considered heads of extended family in cased where the patriarch (male head) is dead, their right to access land is increasingly dependent on support of the adult male members of the family. As revealed in this study, women have devised many strategies for fighting for their access to and control of land. These strategies include engaging local government agencies, working with NGOs, reporting to traditional courts, joining women support groups. Many women do not report to formal courts because the land involved is usually community owned or family owned. The effectiveness of these strategies is increasingly undermined by strong patriachial customary laws, lack of adequate government involvement and women’s low political power.