group 20 to 49 years). The gender gap declines to 21 (20) million if joint property ownership is included – but still disadvantages millions of African women.

**Table 1: Gender gaps translate into millions of disadvantaged women in Africa**

|||(rat|es, inperce|Own<br>nt)|ership<br>(number o|fpeople, in|million)|Popul<br>(aged 20-49|ation<br>, in million|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Female|Male|**Gap**|Female|Male|**Gap**|Female|Male|
|Land|Sole|13.1%|36.0%|**22.9%**|21.8|60.0|**38.1**|||
||Sole and joint|37.8%|50.6%|**12.8%**|63.2|84.2|**21.0**|167.3|166.6|
|Housing|<sup>Sole</sup>|12.9%|39.2%|**26.2%**|21.6|65.3|**43.6**|||
||<br>Sole and joint|43.1%|55.0%|**11.9%**|72.1|91.6|**19.5**|||

_Notes:_ Africa-wide extrapolations based on DHS data for 27 (land) / 28 (housing) countries from 2010-16 and population estimates for 2012. Population 20-49 years. Mean gender gaps applied to countries with missing data.

_Source:_ DHS and UN-DESA (2015).

# **3.3 Patterns across countries**

Women’s disadvantaged position is widespread and systematic. Figure 6 shows the percentage point difference between men and women in the incidence of land and housing ownership at the country level (a positive value indicating that more men than women own the asset). In all but two countries (Namibia and the Comoros), women are less likely than men to claim sole ownership over land and housing property (panel a). In some West African countries, such as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, gender inequality in housing is even larger than gender inequality in land. Gender gaps are more nuanced if one combines sole and joint ownership and a few countries (e.g. Lesotho, Liberia, Ethiopia) even show a female advantage for housing (panel b). But even if joint ownership is taken into consideration, men are considerably more likely to own land and housing in most countries in Africa.

**Figure 6: Gender gaps in land and housing disadvantage women in most African countries**

<!-- Start of picture text --> (a) Sole ownership (b) Sole and joint ownership<br>housing land housing land<br>BFABDINERTCDUGATZABENKENMLINGAGINMOZTGOCODCIVRWASLEETHZMBGHAGMBZWEMWISENLBRLSONAMCOM BFANERTCDNGABENUGATGOGMBMLICODKENTZAGHAGINCIVZWERWASLEBDIZMBSENMOZNAMMWIETHLBRLSOCOM<br>60 60<br>40 40<br>20 20<br>0 0<br>-20 -20<br>-40 -40<br>Male ownership rate (%) - female ownership rate (%) Male ownership rate (%) - female ownership rate (%)<br><!-- End of picture text --> _Note_ : Data for 27 (land) / 28 (housing) countries from 2010-16. Population aged 20-49 years. _Source:_ DHS.

The results also show that, at least at the country level, gender gaps in the ownership of land and housing often go together (i.e. there is a correlation between the blue and red bars). The bivariate correlation between the (absolute) gender gap in sole ownership of land and housing across countries is 0.94; it is 0.90 for sole and joint ownership combined. In other words, in countries where women are less likely than men to own land, they are also less likely than men to own housing, and vice versa. One explanation is that in rural areas land and housing is often a considered as a combined asset (Kes et al 2011). Another one is that 15