2009).<sup>2</sup> This has left women‘s rights in these realms largely unprotected. Traditional law as practiced in Mali, dictates that daughters inherit only half of what sons inherit and husbands are the sole owners of family property. Single women typically have few rights. Marriage accords them protection and some rights such as the use of a plot of land. Yet, as discussed below, these rights are contingent on marital status and lost through divorce/separation and widowhood. Given the large age gap between spouses ─ around 12 and 14 years on average in urban and rural Mali, respectively (ELIM 2006) ─ many young women find themselves widows with few rights once the husband is no longer there to protect and provide for them.<sup>3</sup> In this situation, widows usually remarry, but may well face worse circumstances ─ as may their children ─ and have fewer choices than for their first marriage.

As we shall see below, currently married but previously widowed or divorced women are in a number of respects worse off than women of other marital statuses, controlling for age. Leviratic unions ─ whereby a widow ̳marries‘ into the husband‘s lineage ─ have traditionally provided support to widows and their children by ensuring that a male provider assumes responsibility for them.<sup>4</sup> The levirate also makes it easier for mother and children to stay together. In most cases, and particularly when bride wealth has been paid, a man‘s offspring are seen to belong to his lineage. Although a widow can refuse the levirate, she is not free to take the children she has had with the deceased husband away with her. Furthermore, a new husband from outside the lineage will frequently not accept her children with another man.<sup>5</sup> Although the levirate continues to be extensively practiced in rural Mali, in some places the system is eroding without adequate alternative livelihood opportunities for women who have been left-behind by a male protector. Without the necessary social, economic and legal changes, women remain without practical opportunities to support themselves. In addition, given the large age gap at

> 2 A new family law code which strengthens the rights of women and sets the legal age of marriage at 18 was passed in the National Assembly in 2008 but has not been implemented due to massive demonstrations and vociferous opposition.

> 3 These average age differences are calculated for household heads and their spouses.  Note that the age gaps are larger for polygamous than for monogamous unions.

> 4 Two practices are found and often referred to interchangeably in the literature: widow inheritance and levirate (Kirwen 1979, writing about Tanzania).  In the first, the widow becomes the legal wife of the inheritor, a male relative of the husband, often a brother.  In the levirate, the widow remains married to the dead husband and cohabits with the husband‘s male relative who becomes a substitute husband.  Any offspring are considered children of the dead husband‘s.  These customs have been altered by many forces and it is not entirely clear which form the practice has taken in Mali. In common with much of the literature, I will use the term levirate to mean either practice. 5 This issue and its frequency were often mentioned to me as resulting in major disadvantage for children and women in discussions I had in Bamako in December 2010.

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