Although according to law they enjoy equal rights in family inheritance, in reality, very few girls and women benefit from the right to property.
Study: "The gender gap in land ownership and inheritance in Albania" analyzed data obtained from interviews with 1,258 women in 12 districts of Albania. This study also included data collected from focus groups with 58 women aged 45-60 living in rural areas.
Stratified oppression of rural women
The study highlights that rural women have less opportunities than women living in urban areas to be educated, to have representation in political life and to be employed. On the other hand, the study shows that rural women, although they do a large part of the work, still remain poor and excluded from the right to property.
"Rural women in Albania face three layers of oppression: patriarchy and authoritarianism in governance, male hegemony within their communities and families, and poverty.", - is written in the study.
"It turns out that often, only the head of the family (usually a man) is officially registered in the cadastre as the representative of the family farm", - it is further stated in the study, where women refer to themselves as "homemakers".
Although all family members contribute to agriculture, women, especially the younger ones, work harder and are the most marginalized. "They work harder than men and tend to obey the decisions of their husbands, fathers, brothers and even sons", - is written in the study.
According to the collected data, 48% of women believe that they have to sacrifice their rights to maintain "harmony in the family".
Customary laws, still "regulatory" of society
The survey reveals that customary laws are still very much present in rural areas of Albania, especially regarding land rights, rules which are known and accepted by women.
"Customary laws do not favor women when it comes to property, inheritance and decision-making in general." – quoted in the study.
According to the collected data, more than half of the women surveyed (52%) trust customary rules and relatives, in addition to the law (46%). Less than half of respondents believe that state laws should be followed when making decisions about land sales.
The data collected from the study shows that women tend to follow the instructions of men, believing that the men of the family will make the right decisions on behalf of the family.
More than half of the women surveyed (57%) entrust decisions on inheritance matters to husbands or family. 27% of the surveyed women affirm that they have never seen the land ownership certificate.
Women's perceptions of property rights
In the conducted study, it turns out that one fifth of women think that they do not have the same property rights as men.
Women who are familiar with the legal framework tend to have more sense of equality in family relations compared to rural women, who are more familiar with customary rules. According to the data collected from the focus groups, rural women say that they often choose to voluntarily give up family property, as they do not want to break their relationship with the latter.
In other cases, when women marry and move, they can no longer use the land for agricultural production, as a result of the geographical distance.
"However, where the value of land is very high, such as near the capital or along the coast, intra-family disputes over ownership are more common and often involve women", - is written in the study.
