The Right of Women to Land and Housing in Cameroon’s North West Region: A Legal and Socio-political Analysis

This study is a contribution to the literature on patterns of women empowerment within the framework of a legal and socio-political approach. It uses the women’s right to ownership of land and housing property as a yardstick of effective women empowerment in the grasslands region of Western Cameroon, a region known to be dominated by patriarchal practices. It finds that women’s right to ownership of property has been disproportionately shaped by legal and socio-political factors. From a legal point of view, women like men have the right to ownership of property but from a socio-political stand point, it is not always the case. There is a significant mismatch between women property rights and their effective ownership of property. Women in North West Cameroon make use of property but hardly secure it in their own names. The paper is inviting feminist stakeholders such as government and NGOs to effectively address implementation of ownership procedures and in particular those regarding ownership of land and housing.