Transcript Ensuring Women’s Access to Assets Cheryl Doss Yale University Importance of Assets Productive assets allow escape from poverty  Assets reduce vulnerability to economic shocks  Asset.

Ensuring Women’s Access to Assets
Cheryl Doss
Yale University
Importance of Assets
Productive assets allow escape from
poverty
 Assets reduce vulnerability to economic
shocks
 Asset ownership can be empowering

Women need access to assets
Women are overrepresented among the
poor and vulnerable
 Women use assets differently from men
 Women may not have access to assets
owned by men, even men in their
households

How do women acquire assets?
Marriage
 Inheritance
 Gifts and transfers
 Market purchases
 State or community distribution

Marital Regimes
Separation of property – assets are
individually owned
 Full community property – all assets are
pooled, if marriage dissolves, assets split
 Partial community property – assets
acquired before marriage remain
individually owned, assets acquired
during marriage are pooled

Advantages of different Regimes
Community property regimes recognize
women’s contributions to the household;
women own half of the marital property,
even if they did not purchase it
themselves
 Separation of property rights regimes
protect wives’ individual property

Inheritance Regimes
Partible vs. impartible inheritance
 Degree of testamentary freedom
 Rules for intestate inheritance
 Inheritance rights of spouses


Inheritance regimes especially important
under separation of property regimes
Implications
Need to be aware of the multiple ways
that projects may impact women’s
access to assets
 To understand this, need to consider the
intersection of marital and inheritance
regimes, social norms and market
forces.
