jurisdictions (Meinzen-Dick and Pradhan 2002; Deere and Doss 2006). According to the Women’s Economic Empowerment Database for Africa (Hallward-Driemeier and Hasan 2013), about half of the countries in Africa formally enshrine recognition of customary law in their constitutions, while the remaining countries acknowledge it implicitly in subordinate statutes, such as marriage and inheritance laws. Among countries providing constitutional recognition of customary law, one-third exempt it from the non-discrimination clause on gender (Hallward-Driemeier and Hasan 2013). Customary and religious laws, which can differ from one community to another, are not always discriminatory against women but tend to embody and buttress traditional social norms about women’s role in society. In particular, customary law often grants land ownership to men in their role as the head of the family, while married women only receive secondary rights through their husbands, fathers, or other male family members (Deere and Doss 2006; Kes et al 2011). Likewise, Islamic religious law allocates only one-eighth of the estate to a widow if the husband leaves children, which is to be further shared among co-wives in the case of a polygamous marriage (Lambert et al 2017).

How relevant is customary law vis-à-vis formal (codified) sources of law in the realm of property rights in Africa? And, as a related question, is customary law amenable to legal reforms and policy actions? There is some evidence from West Africa that customary law is more important for property ownership than formal sources of law. Bubb (2013), for example, shows that de facto property rights in land are very similar along the border between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, despite very different formal property regimes. Similarly, Doss et al (2014a) argue that in cases where traditional norms conflict with national laws, the former often prevail and are enforced by the community. But there is also evidence that legislative reforms can have a tangible impact on paternal decisions about bequests. La Ferrara and Milazzo (2017) show that Ghana’s 1985 intestate succession act, which increased (for matrilineal groups) the amount of land that fathers can bequest to their sons, induced a substitution of land inheritance for human capital investment among boys (see Oduro 2010 for qualitative evidence on the same legislative reform). Likewise, impact evaluation evidence suggests that land registration programs (e.g. land titling or certification), especially if they promote joint registration of both spouses, can improve land ownership and tenure security among women and reduce gender gaps when coupled with a conducive legislative framework (O'Sullivan 2017; Ali et al 2014; Goldstein et al 2015). However, most impact evaluations explore short-term effects, typically over a 1-3 year period, and hence cannot show whether these changes in women’s tenure security are maintained in the long-run.

Finally, women may be disadvantaged in market-based forms of property acquisition, primarily because of gender gaps in economic opportunities and earnings. While female labor force participation is comparatively high in many African countries, significant gender gaps are seen in some countries (especially the broader Sahel region) and women are typically less likely than men to work outside agriculture and hold wage jobs (Filmer and Fox 2014; Dieterich et al 2016). Within a specific sector (such as agriculture or non-farm household enterprises), women often have lower levels of productivity and earnings than men (O’Sullivan et al 2014; Nagler and Naude 2017). Together, these forces imply that women earn and control a smaller share of household income than men and are hence disadvantaged in accumulating savings for property investment (Oduro et al 2010). Moreover, women may face disproportionate barriers in access to financial products commonly used to finance land and housing acquisitions, especially savings accounts and mortgages. Data from the 2014 Global Financial Inclusion Database (Findex), for example, show that across Africa, men are more likely than women to have a bank account (39 vs. 30 percent) though this gender gap varies across countries in the region. In Senegal and 8