Gender and agrarian rights: a case study in Tototlán del Oro, Jalisco

Abstract

Studies of gender and access to land rights with a view to reducing hunger and achieving food security are currently a topic of urgent analysis and explanation. This article aims to contribute to the study of women’s access to agrarian rights and to distinguish the differences between them as a social group, based on a case study of the Tototlan del Oro ejido, Jalisco. The analytical framework of Feminist Political Ecology, Ribot and Peluso’s Access Theory and the intersectionality approach were taken as a reference to address the objective. Using qualitative methods, mechanisms based on property and social identity that influence differentiated access among women to the benefits of agrarian rights were analyzed. We find that gender biases in agrarian regulations and in the actors that control such access intersect with other social categories such as age and the availability of economic resources to articulate de jure and de facto rights, while these differences cause a social hierarchy among women.