Promoting Gender Equality Through Development: Land Ownership and Domestic Violence in Nicaragua

This study takes into account global debates surrounding women’s role in development and how access to resources impacts the structures that perpetuate gender inequalities. For example, scholars have argued that women’s ownership of and control over resources are linked to gender-based violence. This paper provides a theoretical framework for, and an examination of, the role of land ownership in women’s empowerment and receipt of domestic violence that has been posed in the literature but never empirically tested. Household surveys conducted in rural Nicaragua reveal that land ownership is directly related to women’s status and power within the marital relationship and to their empowerment and psychological well-being, each of which explained why and how owning land contributed to lower levels of domestic violence. The findings have important implications for the discussion of gender-based violence in the context of development involving land resources, as well as for initiatives that can improve women’s well-being and lead to more equitable policies for women.