Gender, Structural Inequality and Just Governance

This chapter examines the ways in which gendered structural inequality inhibits the just governance of land. Institutions of various kinds (legal, governmental, economic, social, and cultural) specify rules and norms for interaction. Rules and norms outline what types of action are permitted, required, or prohibited by certain groups of actors, as well as the formal and informal penalties for violating such rules and norms. Structural inequality exists when institutional rules and norms differentially restrict opportunities for certain groups to do and become things of value (e.g. being healthy, being employed, being educated) and differentially restrict the ability of certain groups to shape and define institutional rules and norms.