WOMEN AND LAND: ACCESS TO AND USE OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES

The typical face of poverty in South Africa isAfrican, rural, and female.As the primary users ofrural land, women engage in farming and subsistenceactivities. Despite this pivotal role played by ruralwomen, they experience grave problems under communaltenure, most notably in relation to access toand use of land and productive resources. Researchhas shown that the majority of rural households inSouth Africa derive significant proportions oftheir livelihoods from land-based activities, andthat the value of common property resourcesassociated with land, for example livestockproduction,crop production, and natural resourceharvesting is often overlooked as an important assetof poor rural communities. The importance of theseland-based livelihoods sources is even greater forfemale-headed households,female members of ruralhouseholds, and the very poor or "marginalised"members of rural communities, since they tend to bemore reliant on land-based livelihoods than thosewith secure income from pensions, wage-earningactivity or remittances from migrant labourers.