Women and land rights in Lao PDR. Treasure your matri heritage before it is too late! Where do we land up on gender equality?

Abstract

In Laos, the “Turning Land into Capital” policy has accelerated the implementation of new land management and land legislation, and a huge land titling project is forthcoming with plans to standardize “joint ownership” for marital land. In this paper, based on a set of interviews, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) activities and 21 FGDs with women (and men) in 7 villages, the gender impact of the rural transition process and related new land policies on women living in a matrilineal-matrilocal village in the lowland, and a patrilineal-patrilocal village in the upland and forest, will be sketched, with a focus on land tenure and gender (in)equality. In policy-making and public debate on land titling the question of how the “joint” ownership for married women standardization can be achieved without sacrificing Lao women’s individual matrilineal land rights is so far not an issue. Neither are the possibilities to claim matrilineal rights, or other out-of-the-box options to empower ethnic minority women for land rights issues. Is there an “in-house” solution for ethnic minority women beyond “state empowerment” by joint land titling? In the context of multi-ethnic villages and increasing mobility spontaneous cultural switches from patrilocal to matrilocal residence are not unlikely and happen in practice. This might be the beginning of a process of matri-isation. Therefore, treasure your matri heritage before it is too late! It is the unnoticed jewel in the crown of all women.

Keywords:

• Women and matrilineal land rights
• rural transformation
• land titling
• joint ownership
• defeminization of agriculture
• gender (in)equality

Introduction. Where do we land up with joint land titling and gender equality? Safeguarding or sacrificing the jewel in the crown?

“Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”?

The equality of men and women has been a constant feature of Lao socialist ideology from 1955¹ on. In 1986, the socialist ideal of gender equality² has been included in the constitution, and in 1991 it was guaranteed by law (Ireson, 1996, p. 50). However, the main theme, to celebrate women’s day on the 8th of March 2022 in Vientiane was: “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.” Women and men from the government, embassies, international organizations, civil society organizations, nonprofit organizations, business sectors, media, and youth came together in a meeting to advocate for women’s rights and gender equality.³

This set-up looks as if the whole of Laos is plagued by an intolerable gender inequality.⁴ But it is the opposite. Laos is one of the few countries left in the world where for most of its Lao-Tai women, consisting of 64% of the population,⁵ gender equality is relatively high in comparison with neighboring East or South Asian countries.⁶ Laos is part of the Southeast Asian region, which is traditionally characterized, as numerous (feminist) anthropological studies have shown, by bilateral and matrilineal kinship systems, where women enjoy a relatively high status (Atkinson & Errington, 1990; Dube, 1994, 2001; Hüsken & Kemp, 1991; Karim, 1995; Stivens et al., 1994; Watson Andaya, 2004). Scholars alleged that the complementary relationship between men and women, female autonomy, and economic importance are part of the distinctive Southeast Asian culture.

Laos fits perfectly in this characterization as it is a country where we find a matrilineal and a patrilineal social system and many bilateral⁷ shades in between (ADB, 2004; Chazee, 1995; Evans, 1990; Ireson, 1996; Ireson-Doolittle, 1999; Ireson-Doolittle & Moreno-Black, 2004, p. 56; Schlemmer, 2017). Although many ethnic minorities, Hmong, Khamu and Akkha (36%) living in hilly and mountainous areas follow patri-social kinship patterns, some ethnic minorities also follow a matri-system.⁸ Studies in the lowland villages along the Mekong and its tributaries showed that the kinship system of Lao women is even more at the matrilineal than the bilateral side of the spectrum, supported by the broad preference for matrilocal residence (Schenk-Sandbergen, 2012, 2014; Schenk-Sandbergen et al., 1997). James Chamberlain even states (2005, p. 8) that, “Gender complementarity, bilateralism, and hierarchies defined by age rather than sex therefore lie at the heart of any social research undertaken in the region.”

Matrilocal marriage enables customary inheritance rights on house and land for many Lao-Tai women, the majority of whom are the owners of (rice) land, having control over their property and production, family finance, and the local economy. Halpern (1964, p. 101) wrote “With regard to inheritance among the Lao, usually the youngest daughter receives the major share of the land and house, a practice stemming from the basic matrilocal nature of Lao culture.” Evidence shows that when the matri-social system⁹ is practiced by large numbers of households, gender equality is the normal way of life and sustains progressive norms and values about the role of women in society. This is a strong support for women to have a high status, bargaining power in the family, and confidence to participate in public affairs (Agarwal, 1994a; Dube, 2001; Robinson & Gottlieb, 2021). There is ample evidence for Southeast Asia that gender ideology and relations are more equal in matri- and bi- systems than in patri social systems (Agarwal, 1994a; Du, 2002; Karim, 1995; Sanday, 1998, 2002).

In other countries like India and China, they cannot dream of having such a great women-friendly bundle of supporting cultural and institutional preconditions, existing for generations, and sustainably empowering so many women from within the social system. After working as an anthropologist/gender expert in patriarchal India for two decades, Laos felt in 1994 like a paradise.

Certainly, we should not generalize, or romanticize, the situation of all Lao women, as a paradise does not exist, and in the uplands and forest areas of Laos many Hmong, Khamu, and Akha women, face male dominance and gender inequality. As our field study will show, for these women access to, or use of, land is only possible through marriage, and they are dependent on their husband and other male members. But even then, their socially accepted economic roles give them options for a certain autonomy and status. Ireson (1996, p. 60) states that in general, all Lao women have economic power. They control broadly the production and distribution of the goods they produce. Broadly speaking, in ethnic minorities as well women keep the family money, and are usually responsible for everyday financial management in the household (Lindeborg, 2012, p. 128/129; Somphongbouthakanh, 2022, p. 19).

Joint land titling, safeguarding, or sacrificing the jewel in the crown?

In 2019, the “Land Information Working Group” LIWG in Vientiane commissioned a study on “women and land rights,” to be able to enhance and strengthen its support for women’s land rights issues in view of the upcoming land title project,¹⁰ a project which plans to issue one million new land titles by 2025. I had the privilege to participate in the study team.¹¹ This was a golden chance to follow up on my earlier studies on the gender-specific impact of globalization and the forces of the market economy, in combination with new land policies and legislation, on the matri- and the partri-social systems.

One of the direct reasons for the LIWG, to initiate the study on women and land rights, was that the old Land Law of 2003, had a gender provision of “joint ownership” and “both names” on the land document. The new draft Land Law of 2019 no longer includes the current protection clause for married women. The reference to “joint ownership” of husband and wife in case of matrimonial property is omitted. This was considered a step back in securing land tenure for women and they insisted to re-introduce the “joint ownership” clause. Moreover, the upcoming World Bank initiated land titling project required a well-informed advocacy to secure land rights for women.¹² To substantiate their claim, the women and land rights study was designed with the aim to improve understanding of land rights of women living in different areas. The LIWG expected that their advocacy for “joint” ownership of husband and wife in the new land state law and in the forthcoming land titling, to secure land rights for women, can be better promoted.

In line with the concern of the Land Information Working Group, to insist in re-introducing the “joint ownership” clause, the presumption in the World Bank land titling project considered that, “joint land titling of marital property” should be the program rule for married women on how titling and registration will be done in rural areas of Laos (World Bank, 2021a; Hackman, 2022). The forthcoming land registration program (Enhancing Systematic Land Registration¹³), funded by the World Bank and other donors, promises to increase the percentage of women having their name on land titles and will reestablish monitoring systems. Lots of activities will be adopted to achieve these targets but the World Bank report (2021b, p. 130) states that, “A related intervention that might assist these targets would be to ensure that program-related rules on how titling and registration will be done in rural areas in Laos could aim to have a presumption of the joint titling of marital property that places the onus on the parties to prove why it should be otherwise.” However, marital land is a tricky concept. It might be the land bought during marriage by husband and wife, which, of course, justifies “joint” ownership, but, in most cases in the matri-context it is individual land, inherited by matri women from their mother/parents or grandmother before, or during, marriage.

World-wide “defeat” of women-friendly societies?

Eminent women anthropologist as Agarwal (1994a), Dube (2001), Etienne and Leacock (1980), and Schneider and Gough (1961) cautioned that matrilineal, and bilateral societies, all over the world have disintegrated and are undermined by the intrusion of patriarchal ideologies and practices because of colonization, modernization, liberalization and globalization.¹⁴ The eminent study of Agarwal (1994a, pp. 153–197) shows that matrilineal and bilateral societies, in which the position of women was relatively high, has been undermined by the interventions of the colonial and post-colonial state. She illustrates the effects of these interventions with three examples of matri/bilineal societies.¹⁵ In her conclusion, Agarwal writes (1994a, p. 192) that one of the striking features of the three case studies she has presented is, “the vulnerability of women’s customary rights in land, even in matrilineal and bilateral communities, to exogenous forces over which women could exercise little direct control.” These forces include changes in laws and scarcity of land as a direct result of state policies.

My concern, since I came to Laos in 1994, is, how long can the matrilocal Laotian culture be protected against undermining forces, as Laos is going through a dramatic shift from subsistence agriculture and farm-forest based livelihoods to a market/cash, business economy which has been accelerated by the “Turning Land into Capital” policy since 2006?

In addition, new land management and land legislation is implemented, and a huge land titling project is forthcoming with plans to standardize “joint ownership” for marital land. It is obvious that the drive behind the “joint titling” is the promotion of the strong international development ideology of “gender equality” during the past two decades.¹⁶ There is a paradox that 25 years ago “male dominance” was a threat to women’s land rights (GRID Center, 2005; GRID Center & Lao Women’s Union, 1999; Schenk-Sandbergen & Choulamany-Khamphoui, 1995; Viravong, 1999, p. 153), but 25 years later the “gender equality” ideology as reflected in “joined titling” might undermine autonomous land rights for Lao-Thai women.

In this article, the findings of two villages, a matri- and a patri- one, selected for the study on “women and land rights,” will be presented. It will be shown that the customary land rights of women in the matri-village are endangered by two mutually enforcing threats: Firstly, the enormous loss of paddy land, resulting in a defeminization of labor participation in agriculture, and secondly by the unprecedented promotion of the international gender equality ideology, which in practice works out in the standardization of “joint” ownership of land, and “both names on the document” in the upcoming land titling for married women. Adjudication of a joint land document might support and protect some patrilineal-patrilocal Hmong and Khamu women, but paradoxically, it will be detrimental in the long run for matrilineal-matrilocal Lao women. It is feared, in line with the worldwide trend of the defeat of matri-systems, that the existing, customary intergenerational gender equality in the matri social system will be undermined in the process of the formalization of land rights with standard “joint” titling for marital land.

It can also be asked if it is realistic to expect more gender equality in practice with less male dominance by issuing “joint” ownership and “both names” on the land title for patri-women? We will see below that those women faced an enormous loss of access to upland- and forest land, resulting in a disastrous de-feminization of farming the forest. New modes of labor- and gender relations to survive have reenforced the perpetuation of patri norms and son-preference values. Moreover, we will show that it is already the current standard practice in the land offices, to issue various land certificates and documents for “allocated” land as “joint ownership,” with both names on the land document for ethnic minority women. But, in practice, as we will see below, it is a “paper tiger” for women, but also for men. “State gender empowerment” for ethnic minorities, by joint titling, is not at all compensating, so to say, damage is done by land allocation policies and practices in the loss of men’s and particularly women’s role in farming the forest and destruction of the social environment. Where do we land up on gender equality?¹⁷

The stepchild. Treasure your matri heritage before it is too late!

In view of the above findings of so many anthropological studies on countries in Southeast Asia on the positive implications for women of the bi- and matri-social system and the threats endangering it, it is stunning that the Lao matri-system is the real “stepchild,” and totally ignored, in publications and discourse on land tenure/rights and gender equality in Laos.¹⁸ Instead, as it will be argued in this paper, the Lao matri system has to be protected and can be a model, or “best practice,” for women living in patrilineal-patrilocal ethnic minority communities in the uplands and forest, and hopefully might reduce the gender gap they face. Proximity to family members through matrilocal residence, and land- and house ownership through inheritance rights, empowers women inevitably from inside the Lao social system itself (Schenk-Sandbergen, 2009, 2014). There is ample evidence for the positive relation between matrilocal marriage, inheritance of land rights for women, food security¹⁹ and gender equality (Agarwal, 2016). The emancipatory potential of the matri-system might also safeguard the sisters in the resettled villages.²⁰ Then, what is the future perspective for patrilineal-patrilocal minority women to ensure more access to land? By legislation? or state empowerment by joint land titling?²¹ or by social empowerment? Empowerment cannot be “given” by the government. Social empowerment has to be “taken” and “adopted” by minority women themselves and requires awareness, struggle, and “agency” to change.

Is there an “in-house” solution for ethnic minority women beyond “state empowerment” in laws? Yes, there, may be, or is, but more gender equality cannot flourish in a patriarchal structure. Is matri-isation²² a solution to reduce gender inequality? We will show that in a context of multiethnic villages and increasing mobility spontaneous cultural switches from patrilocal to matrilocal residence are not unlikely and happen in practice. This might be the beginning of a process of “matri-isation” contributing to the aim of enhancing sustainable gender equality? This is not a question of “Lao-isation,”²³ or imposing the domination of Lao culture by policymakers on patri minority women (Goudineau, 2015, p. 34), or cultural imperialism, but rather a process of inspiration and empowerment to support the sisters in the upland and the forest. Therefore, treasure your matri heritage before it is too late! It is the unnoticed jewel in the crown of all women in Laos and beyond (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Money bill of 1000 kip issued in 2003. Bill promoting sisterhood and equality between women of the three main ethnic groups. This is even more applicable now, as matrilocal marriage and matri-inheritance rights for all three groups will be presented as argument in this paper. Source: Author’s own photograph.

The composition of this paper is as follows. The set-up of the field study will be sketched in the first section: The study: “Women and land rights in Lao PDR: rural transformation and a dream of secure land tenure.” In the section Village Phonsong, endangered matri-system, the actual situation, socio-economic changes, intrusion of state gender ideology, and gender impact in matri-village Phonsong in Vientiane Province will be presented. In section Nahom village: resettlement and increase of son-preference, the socio-economic changes and the gender impact of resettlement and allocation of land for rubber plantations, in the patri- forest village Nahom in district Namor in Province Oudomxay will be sketched. In the section Matri-isation, spontaneous cultural switches, and gender equality, we will discuss the matri-isation process as a possible way forward to achieve more gender equality and to secure sustainable land rights for matri- and patri-women.

The study: “Women and land rights in Lao PDR: rural transformation and a dream of secure land tenure”

Selection of a matri- and a patri village

The field team visited seven villages in four districts of four provinces, involving eight different ethnic groups. We found that in all seven villages, women lost access to and control over land: in the matrilineal villages rice (low-land paddy, naa fields) land, and in the patrilineal villages mostly (hai, upland fields) land they used in the past for subsistence and livelihood. Expansion of roads, construction of buildings, resettlement, concessions to rubber plantations, elite appropriation of collective land, and leasing out land to sugar-cane fields are the main grounds for the loss of access to land we identified (Somphongbouthakanh & Schenk-Sandbergen, 2020, p. 22). Almost all women in our study perceived the issuing of a legal, permanent land title as gaining more security of land tenure. Many women stated “to dream” of a land and a title of their own.

Only the findings in two villages are presented in this article: a matri one in Vientiane Province, District Viengkham, with a Lao-Tai ethnic majority in the lowlands, and a patri village in the uplands in Oudomxay, District Namor, a multi-ethnic minority village, Hmong, Khamu. Although, the villages are of course not representative of the 8507 villages in the Lao PDR (Lao Population and Housing Census, 2015, p. ii) they roughly illustrate the two main types of global transformation processes of the shift from agriculture based and farm-forest-based subsistence livelihood systems to market/cash economic business lifestyles and the related land management.

Theoretical framework and methodology, “whose hands are this?”

Kinship and descent, post-marriage residence and inheritance rights are the three crucial pillars determining property rights, gendered access to resources, social rights, and obligations, and the nature of power and authority. Therefore, the following typology was followed as the theoretical framework to analyze the content and meaning of land rights/tenure of women (Table 1).

Table 1. Typology of the decisive variables determining customary land rights.

System	Kinship	Residence	Inheritance
Matrilineal	Women might use own surname. Children can get mothers or fathers name.	Husband goes after marriage to the house of his wife and lives with his parents-in-law. In case there are no daughters in the family the bride might go to bridegroom’s house but has same right on house land as own daughter.	The daughter or son who looks after the old parents (mostly the youngest daughter) inherits the house and homestead and a larger part of the land (na fields) than her siblings.
Patrilineal	Children get only name of father’s family.	Wife goes after marriage to house of husband to live with her parents-in-law.	Son inherits and owns house and land.
Bi-lineal system	Name of children can be father’s or mother’s name.	Depends on the situation who is going where.	Can be son or daughter who owns the land and house. Couples who own their own house tend to safeguard the matrilineal tradition for their daughter.

Source: Schenk-Sandbergen (1998, p. 12).

The excellent study of Elisabeth Mann and Ny Luangkhot (2008) shows that nowadays social systems are changing in line with the context and that the categorization of ethnic minority groups as either matri- or patri- or bilocal and bilineal has become more and more complicated, in particular, because of resettlement policies (p. 18). The evidence Mann and Luangkhot give for the switching of social systems is in line with findings in earlier studies (Schenk-Sandbergen, 2012) and will be elaborated in the matri-isation paragraph below.

The above theoretical framework was broadly operationalized in the following methodology. The team consulted the central, provincial, district, and village authorities and other stakeholders in land management to collect relevant data on gender and land management, and to learn more about the wider context of important changes in land use and tenure during the past ten years. At the village level, the study team collected basic data from the village authorities, followed by rough map making from a historical perspective with the villagers and a transect walk in the village. The data collected in the women- and men focus groups gave us a first impression of kinship relations, residence patterns and plots of land used, inheritance customs, land-use patterns, types of land documents, land-tax, land conflicts, and problems related to land. The household interviews offered more in-depth insight and understanding of findings evolving from the focus group data. Poor, middle, and well-to-do villagers were interviewed based on the quality of the houses: men and women.²⁴

A special gender tool, gender game, was used²⁵ to encourage the villagers to reflect on perceptions of gender (in)equality regarding the gender division of labor. 70 visuals picturing productive, reproductive, and community labor in a gender-neutral way are shown, and the question is asked to participants, “whose hands are this?” The intention is to create gender awareness of the differences in workload of women and men and its justification. The game generated lively discussions and fun between men and women at the village level (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Some visuals of the “whose hands are this?” gender division of labour game. Source: Author’s own photograph.

Village Phonsong, endangered matri-system

Village profile Phonsong

Village Phonsong, Viengkham District, Vientiane Province, is located at the recently widened laterite road nr. 10, splitting the village even more into two parts. It looks like an urban village with new, large houses, sheds, little shops, and buildings like a ribbon along the road. Villagers have obviously invested in big houses with green, pink, blue colored walls, gates, and balconies. The old wooden houses on stilts or pillars have almost disappeared. No loom or buffalo can be seen anymore under the house, but power tillers are parked next to the house. Obviously, a rapid urbanization process took place in the past ten years and modern lifestyles have been adopted. People have TVs, satellite disks, fans, washing machines, electric cooking/water devices, motorbikes, water pumps, and other modern gadgets.

The population in Phonsong village is 1313 (no sex disaggregated data). Two hundred and fifty-eight families and 272 households. The whole population is Lao-Tai (Lao), only one Hmong family and three Khmu families live in the village. The average family size is small, 4.8 people. There are 593 hectares of wet-rice, naa land, 15 hectares of garden- and 205 hectares of grazing land in the village.

It is clearly visible that land-based livelihood systems are disappearing in a rapid way. It is told in the focus groups and confirmed by the land management staff at provincial and district levels, that 50% of the rice, na, fields have been converted in the past ten years to construct houses and buildings to start small shops, enterprises, restaurants, businesses, beauty parlors and apartments for renting along road nr 10. Rice fields were also converted into more profitable vegetable land, to sell to local restaurants and the local market.

Long ago, in 1998, the whole village stopped using irrigation water but almost all households have enough rice for the whole year to feed their members and some can even sell rice. Later, during our interviews, people complained that, to get a higher production of the rain-fed harvest they must use more chemical fertilizer and insecticides which is bad for health. Upland, hai, rice fields, are also not used anymore. The women we met during our walk in the village said that “they have no time for that anymore” as they are busy with business, and weaving sticky rice baskets, in their home at a piece rate for a woman-entrepreneur in the village. In the interviews, only one woman said that she still has 1.5 hectares hai rice land far away from the village. There was some “reserved” forest in the village where women collected firewood and small forest products in the past, but this land has all been privatized (encroached) and buildings are constructed on the land, as reported: “It is a big problem which is not solved so far.”

In the village there are no land concessions issued, there is no contract labor for plantations, no foreign investments in agri-business, no landgrab, and no NGOs have any project, Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP) is unknown, only the woman land tax-collector participated some years ago in the procedure to issue a few land titles. There is only a local credit fund,²⁶ the Lao Women Union, and the Master plan project for the new capital in Viengkham of Vientiane Province nearby. This last project has affected some women in the village as parts of their paddy fields have been confiscated by the local authorities for road construction. “Half of my paddy field is under the road now” a woman told. She inherited the land from her mother but had no legal land-title or paper document to prove her ownership. So far, no compensation has been given. As more women lost land, they wait for the land team to issue new land certificates: “Maybe later compensation will come” one said. They say, “road construction is for the development of the nation.”

Kinship, residence, and inheritance of land rights

Matrilineal kinship and descent, and matrilocal post-marriage residence, are still vital and functioning in practice in Phonsong.²⁷ Most women live in the house of their mother/parents with sisters and maternal relatives in the neighborhood. Only in one case it was the other way round as the bride lived in another district, and there was no daughter in the family of her bridegroom. Remarkably she got a piece of rice land from her father-in-law after marriage as a kind of bride price. In addition, gold and cash were given. Matrilocal residence is still the common practice in Phonsong, as men from our focus group discussions came to stay with their wife’s parents after their marriage. Only in one case did the wife come to stay at his parents’ house. In Phonsong most women keep their own family surname, but their children have sometimes a husband’s name.

We analyzed the data from the “land-tax payment record book” of the woman land tax collector in the village.²⁸ We got an opportunity to analyze her “land-tax payment record book,” a treasure of data for our study as it shows the gender-specific data of the owners of the land and all details on the issued date of land titles in 1999, 2005, and 2011, respectively and data on the total number of plots, size of the area and price per agricultural land category: naa field, shifting cultivation, garden, graze land and exemption of land tax category. The last column was empty although we came across one man who said that he was exempted from land tax as somebody in his family died during the revolution. The column “shifting cultivation” was also empty which might mean that dry rice cultivation in the uplands is no longer practiced, or, in view of the ban on shifting cultivation, we can assume obvious reasons to keep this column empty. Only one woman in our focus-group stated that she grows still rice in the uplands. All women participants paid the land-tax to the tax collector themselves varying from Kip 80.000 to 250.000 Kip per year. In the land tax book, it is administrated “whose name is written on the land tax bill or land certificate.”

The “land-tax payment record book” mentioned a total of 353 plots with a land title/Land certificate: Naa Land: 183 plots (biggest area of Naa land: 3.0777 hect: smallest size of Naa land: 0.0127 hect). There are 170 plots of grazing land (biggest size of grazing land: 21.5809 hect.: smallest size of grazing land: 0.0152 hect).

The data of the land-tax book show that women are the largest group of land-use certificate owners and land taxpayers in comparison to men as follows:

• Women’s name: 195 plots, 55%

• Men’s name: 134 plots, 38%

• Both names: 34 plots, 7%

55% of the plots of land in the village are inherited and owned by women. A substantial portion of the land, 38%, is in the men’s name. This is in line with the custom that parents divide a part of the land equally between daughters and sons, and to give more land to the daughter or son who takes care of them in their old age. The figures might indicate that daughters take more care and therefore inherit more land than sons. According to the participants in our interviews and focus groups, the right of inheritance for daughters and sons is still the same compared to a decade ago. They say that norms, attitudes, and behavior regarding women’s right to inherit land have hardly changed during the past decades, despite the major changes that occurred in the village. The findings show the intergenerational sustainability of the matri-system. The above findings show that matrilineal kinship, matrilocal residence, and inheritance rights for women are still vital and functioning in village Phonsong. They underscore exactly the bundle of preconditions for high gender equality as described in my earlier research in the villages of the matri-belt of Laos, comprising most of the population.

So, “joint titling” as suggested by the World Bank as the rule in the upcoming land titling project for married women will undermine their existing, authentic gender equality and might generate male dominance. As such, joint land titling will be harmful to matri-women as it will come on top of the negative impact of the alarming loss of paddy land and changing gender ideology and gender relations as a consequence of the neo-liberal rural transformation process undermining the rationale of the matri social system as will be analyzed in the next paragraph.

Figure 3. Matri-women weaving bamboo baskets. Source: Author’s own photograph.

Gendered impact of loss of rice land. Defeminization of agriculture

Women’s changing role in agriculture has gained international attention,²⁹ with increasing discussion about whether agriculture is “feminizing” globally, as evidenced by women’s expanding role in the agricultural sector in regions across the world (Kelkar, 2006). The main reason for the feminization is the national and international labor migration of men from rural areas to the cities. A few other studies report the opposite, namely, an alarming trend of defeminization for various categories of rural women (Kawarazuka et al., 2022; Schenk-Sandbergen, 2018). What is the situation in Phonsong?

In village Phonsong an obvious transition from a rural to an urban village is noticed and a related dramatic reduction of paddy land, which accelerated a process of de-feminization, or decrease in participation of women in food/rice cultivation and agriculture. So, contrary to the general trend of reported feminization of agriculture, we noticed a process of defeminization or withdrawal from women out of agricultural production. Women work more in, or around, their home as retail sellers, shopkeeper, tailors, bamboo weavers. The bamboo basket weaving is widespread in the village and makes women house-bound and generates a process that looks like the “domestication” of women (Rogers, 1980), which can be considered a step backward on their former strong productive role of women in agriculture on which their customary ownership of land and house is based. However, some women work away from home as officers, teacher, and saleswomen in nearby towns (Figure 3).

The household interviews revealed that by far the main income of the households is from the earnings of the husbands. Men and sons work as driver, construction laborer, shopkeeper, and businessmen, or have a vegetable or furniture business and some are also professional bamboo weavers. Labor migration of men to other provinces to work in construction is also common, and they come home only a few times a year. Some women contribute to the income by running shops, working in offices in the district capital and one was head of a daycare center for children. However, the main trend was that women have become sort of farm- housewives doing handicraft as side-income. The share of women in the family subsistence and income is clearly decreasing, as there is a marginalization of women in food production, while men earn cash income as the following quote shows.

The sources of my family income from my side are selling bamboo weaving products, about 5,000,000 kip per year. My husband’s salary from driving is 1,500,000 kip per month. There is no other source of income. I am the person who keeps the money, and I can make decision to spend money, even of large purchases. (Respondent, interviewed September 2019).

Undermining of the rationale for customary inheritance rights of land for women

Customary inheritance rights of land and house of women are given for good reasons. It is a form of positive discrimination as a reward for women’s care for the old parents, care for the land and farm, care for the food, care for the children, care for the sick, care for the forest, care for the aged. The ecofeminist philosopher Vandana Shiva remarks that, “the work of care, that is the real work.”³⁰ Care is the opposite of the current exploitation of the land under the “turning land into capital” ideology and economy (Kenney-Lazar, Dwyer, et al., 2018).

Land and rice are the basic resources to fulfill the roles as mother, daughter, wife, and caretaker. However, inheritance of rice land is no longer a crucial pre-condition to take care of parents and children. We can sketch a scenario in the future where caring daughters are no longer necessary to feed and care for the old parents as the household income is earned by the husband or son-in-law and food is bought from outside. This might be a serious threat that might undermine the rationale for women’s powerful position based on their customary inheritance land rights. It undermines the rational and fundamental norms and values on which the inheritance rights of land and house of women are acknowledged and justified. This might result in an increase in gender inequality in gender relations and the disempowerment of Lao women.

Moreover, we noticed that the planned standardization of “joint titling on marital land,” under the gender equality mainstreaming ideology, is already intruding into the mindset of matri women themselves as “politically correct,” “modern,” and “way forward” in development.

When we asked the women in the focus group, “whose name is on the land document of the land they use/possess?” we got a variety of replies.

Table

Number of women: n = 9	Name on land document
2	Own name
1	Five names, all brothers and sisters
1	Parents name
2	Mothers name
1	Fathers name
2	Both names of husband and wife (legal land title)

It was worrying that in two cases, in which the land was inherited by the woman, the issued permanent land title was put on both names. It was not accidental that the women of the two households were the households of the head of the village head and deputy head. As authorities in the village, they are supposed to follow the State gender policy of gender equality. This means that the independent land rights for women are replaced by joint ownership. Moreover, they were economically better off and could pay the fee for obtaining the legal land title. For the majority of the villagers, the issuing of a formal land title was too expensive.³¹ The practice of loss of land of undocumented land enhanced their awareness of securing their land ownership. Women dream of having land and title of their own.

It is an alarming indication that the customary inheritance rights for women become subordinated by the state law protocol in which “joint” ownership and “both names” on the document are standardized based on gender equality as the leading principle. If a land title is the only evidence for securing land use rights, does that mean that the inherited land of married women will not be acknowledged and will be overruled by statutory land rights to consider it as conjugal property? The same trend is observed by Kusakabe (2015, p. 4) in Cambodia. She writes that the traditional land holding of the ethnic group of Kachok has been matrilineal. That is, land has been transferred from mother to daughter, and men will marry into their bride’s house and cultivate the land of the bride’s family. With the land concession women have lost their land to rubber concessions, and whatever land they have, they have lost since the land is now registered under both husband and wife’s name, while before it belonged only to the wife. She states that (2015, p. 4), this can put women at a disadvantage in case of divorce, although such cases have not yet been reported.

The consequences of the current standardization of “joint” ownership in the land titling process for women’s rights to land and livelihoods in general, nor women’s possibilities to claim matrilineal rights to land have been prominent issues in policy-making and public debate. While a central objective in the new land policies is to ensure tenure security and equitable access to land, the question of how this can be achieved without sacrificing women’s matrilineal land rights has so far not been an issue.

No training in land management for the women of the Lao Women’s Union in the village had been given, let alone the awareness of the possible negative consequences of matri-women of joint land titling. The only training of the LWU village leaders in Phonsong was on gender equality some years ago in which equality in the inheritance law is propagated. But what is the situation in the land registration offices?

Gender sensitivity in the land offices: the iron guideline for autonomous land rights

We found that at the provincial and district level there are broadly no disaggregated gender-specific data on issued Land Titles so far, but the land management authorities are working on it with new computer systems. At the village level the data are available, as we have shown in the above, in the handwritten land tax book of the woman tax collector.

In village Phonsong but also at the district Viengkham level, women are in charge of the government land management offices. The head and deputy head of DONRE (District Office of Natural Resources and Environment) are matri-women, which reflects the outspoken matrilineal and matrilocal social environment in which they are embedded—a situation we did not come across in the other six patri-districts we visited during our field study. We spoke with the woman deputy head, who is certainly no “Cinderella” in the white palace³² waiting for the prince. She is a strong lady who participates in all technical land activities of land management in the villages. They have 14 staff members in DONRE, and 9 are women. They are very professional and vocal women, quite able to defend their own, and other women’s, land rights.

In general, there is a laudable overall gender sensitive land administration in all the land management offices at provincial and district levels visited. The following gender guideline is used and punctually followed in practice by all officials, mostly men living themselves in matri-households, in all provinces and districts we met for individual, private land. The iron guideline runs as follows:

If a woman inherits land from her parents, her name will be put in the land title document and when a man inherits land from his parents, his name will be put in the land title document. In case of land received or bought after marriage both, husband, and wife names, will be put in the land title; in case the wife will have her husband’s name in the land document for her inherited land and opposite, both husband and wife have to sign a letter of agreement with the village authority to have a joint ownership.

But, for how long will this “iron” guideline be followed? In our land rights study “joint” was standard on all land documents of allocated land in the other six villages we visited for our study. Except in the matrilineal village, all types of land documents (certificates, document 01, family land book, red book, etc.) issued on “allocated” land were registered as joint ownership and both names were on the documents. Even in the Akha village with an outspoken patrilineal inheritance tradition we found that both names were put in the family land book. The land administration staff has punctually implemented the “State Law,” knowing that the customary law in this strict patriarchal community favors the son and disadvantages daughters (Somphongbouthakanh & Schenk-Sandbergen, 2020). However, my fear is that the formalization of land rights of women living in the matri-system might be understood as formal “land allocation” and therefore justifies the standardization of “joint titling.” Is this the last “Zomia,” integrated by state empowerment? Ireson wrote in 1999, “The lowland Lao women will be particularly affected if traditional matrilineal rights are eroded by the introduction of a single set of laws for the country” (1999, p. 145). There are similar experiences in other countries, for example, Malaysia (Stivens, 2022) where traditional adat rights of women are submerged in the dominant Islamic adat in which women became more subordinated to men.

Let us now have a brief look at the actual situation and if “joint titling” might secure access to land for Hmong and Khamu women in village Nahom in the uplands and forest of Oudomxay in Manor District.

Nahom village: resettlement and increase of son-preference

Profile upland, forest village Nahom

In September 2019, the work in progress of the China-Laos Railway was very visible in the landscape of district Namo in Oudomxay province.³³ Endless rows of Chinese trucks were driving with a lot of noise and with high speed through the villages on road nr. 13.³⁴ Ban Nahom is such a roadside village located along this National Route, nr 13 North. Many accidents happened already, as young girls and women must fetch water with heavy buckets, as the collective water pipes are located along Road 13. Mothers with motorbikes often transporting water bottles with three children at the same time, or having babies wrapped in the sling, have no other choice than to drive on road nr. 13. Small schoolchildren and old people must walk on the road as there is no other option—not to speak of the dirty smell and air pollution because of the emissions of cheap petrol (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Mother on motorbike with baby in the sling fetching water. Source: Author’s own photograph.

Some houses are small, with simple wooden shelves and bamboo matting as material. There is one cement house with red rooftiles constructed by a Chinese man who married a Lao village girl (Lyttleton & Li, 2017, p. 320).³⁵ It was gossiped that her father forced her to marry him out of poverty.

The village is a mix of seven original Khmu families and resettled Hmong families from the uplands (Thongmanivong & Fujita, 2006, p. 238). Most of the families, who moved to Nahom in 1991, already owned swidden plots in this area. The head of the village said that he had lived in his house since 1975 (interview 2019). After the establishment of Nahom, a group of Hmong families also arrived, as the government encouraged the relocation of upland farmers to reduce slash-and-burn (Bouté & Pholsena, 2017). But, in one of our interviews, a Hmong woman said that the main reason for resettlement of her family from the mountains was to stop opium growing (Lu, 2015).³⁶ The mountains along the village have all been covered 10 years ago with rubber trees and look very monotonous.

Kinship, residence, and access to land

Five women (one Hmong, two Khamu, one Khamu-Lue, and one Taidam) and five men (all from Khamu community) participated in our two focus group sessions. It was in line with earlier findings that, of the women’s group, the two Khamu women said that their husband came after marriage to live with them.³⁷ In these two cases, the Khamu women owned the house and homestead land. One constructed the house herself after she obtained the homestead land, and one constructed the house with her husband and has joint ownership. Three of the five Khamu men resided permanently according to matrilocal practice and had no plans to move to their parents’ location. This shows that the patrilineal and patrilocal social system in the Khamu community is not so strict and offers scope for cultural switches in gender relations. The Hmong families in the village were patrilineal and patrilocal.

Questions on access to land, or land and inheritance rights for women, looked a little odd in Nahom, as it is a resettled village with little history of deceased parents transferring their private land to the next generation. Only 6 to 7% of the land is classified as private agricultural land, and the rest is classified as conservation-, protection- and village forest under the control of the government. Nevertheless, the women of small families said they have two plots of land, mostly a plot of homestead land and a “garden” land plot that seemed to be the allocated land to grow rubber trees. Large family members said they have up to ten plots of land which included upland plots in the original mountain villages. We also asked the women who is the owner of the plots of land, and whose name is on the land certificates. The women did not mind, they consider the husband’s and his family’s land as “my land.” Women say, “I have five plots,” but they mean that the land certificate is in the name of the parents-in-law, or the husband, and they are only working on their five plots. On the other hand, women expressed that they dream to have more land, especially Naa (rice) and Hai (upland rice) land, and to have their name in the land title because it will belong to them and other people cannot take their land, and if they want to sell, they can sell it.

Gender context in Nahom: from upland rice and opium to bitter bamboo and to rubber

Our analysis shows that roughly, the village went in time through three processes of farm-forest transformations with serious negative gender impact: (1) Land and forest allocation which serious land loss, generating “new” or “policy-induced” poverty and food shortage (ADB, 2001) (2) commercialization of non-timber forest products by “bitter bamboo” projects (Morris et al., 2004)³⁸ in which women were neglected, and (3) converting uplands used for rice production into rubber plantations or “rubber garden.” In the process from swidden to rubber women were marginalized as farm-forest food providers, and the gender gap increased. Broadly speaking, the three processes disempowered women in an unprecedented way, not least by the defeminization of farm-forest subsistence agricultural production. To mitigate the loss of food and income land management authorities allocated former upland forest land along road nr 13 to each resettled household (about one hectare for each family) to grow rubber trees for a Chinese company. We understood that it is the contract cultivation model known as “2 + 3.” The farmer provides the land and labor, while the plantation company supplied the capital, technique and buys the rubber harvest (Thongmanivong et al., 2009, p. 9). It was unanimously shown that the resettled Hmong and Khamu families received a land-use certificate for the allotted rubber plantation land by the government, and all are adjudicated as “joined ownership and in the name of husband and wife.”

Kusakabe and Chanthoumphone (2021, p. 1) write that, “Despite the numerous studies conducted on the impact of rubber plantations in northern Lao PDR (…), gender analysis is limited (Daley et al., 2013 is an exception), and research at the intersection of gender, location, and ethnicity is indeed rare.” Dao (2018, p. 1597) writes for a comparable village in Vietnam, “to some extent, rubber brought some benefits to local people in terms of wages and incomes. But giving up their land for rubber plantations was a highly unequal exchange, and many of the costs of land loss have been disproportionately borne by women. Land dispossession in this case has not only impoverished people but also undermined their land rights. Losing farming land puts more work burden on women.” What is the situation in Nahom?

Gender impact: from upland rice to rubber, de-feminization, and re-masculinization

In Nahom village the former uplands are converted to rubber plantations and women and men are tapping rubber in their rubber tree “garden” and have become cash earners. In the past women and men were independent and free to grow rice in their hai field and to forage wild vegetables and other daily food, fuel, and medicines, but now this is impossible as most of the uplands have become rubber plantation.³⁹ We noticed a de-feminization of the farm-forest system. However, from the household interview data on income, it is shown that some women still sell small forest products such as bamboo and mushrooms. They started to collect this on village “common” land, or “preserved” land as it cannot be burned, and trees cannot be cut. One or two families use small plots of land along the river to grow vegetables and to collect weeds from the river to sell in the market.

Foraging in the “thick” forest became very difficult for women and was left to men. We met a man who was on his way to catch a squirrel for his daily meal. He said that he had to walk 5 hours now after resettlement to reach the real deep forest where he can use his bamboo trap. More well-to-do extended families keep access to their upland cultivation areas in their old villages which requires hiring extra, mainly male, labor force and investments. More men, because of the distance and safety, were involved in moving between the two villages to grow commercial crops on their former upland fields (counter-territorialization?) which hints at the remasculinization of agriculture and management (Archambault & Zoomers, 2015).

The main work of married Khamu and Hmong women in the resettled Nahom village is to weed their small cardamom plots (private and on community land) and to collect rubber from the trees in their “garden.” Married women stated that income derived from rubber tapping is not sufficient for their daily needs and they must earn additional money. Many men moved out for seasonal migration and became road- and highspeed train construction workers for Chinese construction companies and earn the main share of the income of the household. Young unmarried women search for wage labor in nearby towns and in restaurants in China or seasonally migrate to China, Vientiane, and Thailand to earn money for the family. Young mothers of poorer Khamu families have totally given up land-based income resources and changed their lives from independent farm women to casual road construction wage laborer. In the focus group conducted for our study, one Lue woman married to a Khamu man told:

My main work is now to weed the home garden and work in the rubber plantation, before I worked with a highway company during the construction of the highway nearby the village and got money around 2.000.000 kip/month. Now I stopped because the road construction is far away from the village. Besides, I do all the household work because my husband works with the highway company in China and earns money; around 10.000.000 kip/year.

This shows that mothers are affected more, as fathers have more opportunities to find alternative resources for cash earning labor (Figure 5). The nature of the available work in construction, and gender norms and values related to women’s role, mobility and household work, and lower education opportunities, limit the scope for women to find income generating work. It is women’s role to look after the children and the household which is a very exhausting and time-consuming job in Nahom as the collective water outlets are located along road nr. 13. We observed women and girls washing clothes, kitchen utensils, and bathing children from the road water pipes. As there are no taps the water flows continuously and creates a mesh of dirt and mud around the place.⁴⁰ The high-tech speed train passing along the village and the poor water facilities provides a sad contrast.

Figure 5. Mother and daughter washing clothes and kitchen utensils at the water pipes along the road site. Source: Author’s own photograph.

Reinforcement of son-preference

Rubber cultivation has changed the division of labor making women more marginalized. Male labor demand in rubber production is high. Rubber has mainly a male identity. Tapping must be done before sunrise. It requires to wake up in the middle of the night and to walk alone in the forest (Dao, 2015, p. 19). This is not appropriate and practical for young women and mothers, although one middle aged mother did the job too in Nahom. Younger women collect the latex later in the morning by daylight. Other tasks such as lifting the heavy lumps and weighting require extreme physical strength and are also considered male jobs. The weeding is done together by men and women in the non-tapping season.⁴¹ Women also complain about the smell of the rubber and the chemicals to be used which damage their health.

The reality for patrilineal-patrilocal women in Nahom is, that survival requires the male labor force in the family to do the heavy and risky work in rubber production and to be able to do the heavy physical labor as construction worker for Chinese companies. The process from uplands to rubber cultivation has reinforced male dominance and son-preference. Therefore, it is for good reasons, and very rational, that almost all women in our focus group and interviews stated, that “sons should inherit the land (if any) or, that the land right use should be transferred to the sons.” Their sons will stay with them and must take care of them in their old age, and the daughters marry out. So, when there is an opportunity, they will give scarce available land, or more land, to their sons and not to their daughters. And, they want a secure Land Title with both names on the document, not to empower themselves but broadly to be able to take credit to buy land for their sons and to pay for the high bride price and wedding party for their sons. This shows that although legal provisions ensure joint ownership of rubber land in Nahom, it is not contributing to the empowerment of women themselves or more gender equality. Discrimination of daughters is reinforced by the state land management policies and the forces of the market economy of the past decades. The perception that sons should get priority when land must be divided is not a backward patriarchal attitude but a very realistic survival strategy. This outspoken son-preference was also reflected in the investment in education for boys which was substantially higher. In one Hmong farm family in Nahom a son has even a bachelor’s degree in law but is already unemployed for three years and works in his father’s rubber garden.

What does “joined ownership” mean in practice?

The resettled Hmong and Khamu villagers in Nahom received a land-use certificate for the allotted rubber plantation land, and all are joined ownership and in the name of husband and wife. However, they cannot sell the land and get credit as it remains government land/given by the government. A man said smiling, “it is a kind of 50-50; the land is half the Government’s and half belongs to me.” So they are a kind of “sharecroppers” who work in the rubber plantation land but they cannot sell the land or get credit. Even though they do have some sort of legal land use rights, the villagers are no longer able to control their land and decide how it will be used. Men and women seem to be aware that there is no security of permanent land use of their “rubber garden.” Therefore, what will happen in 20 years when the rubber trees are not fertile anymore?

In the village Nahom, only two rich households out of a total 152 households have a real formal certified land title on individual (claimed) land which should give security of land rights.⁴² The staff in DONRE told them to put the name of both husband and wife on the land title document. They did and they took credit and have an enormous debt now as their investment in pigs dwindled away because of swine-fever. The lady-owner had cried for a week as she is responsible for repaying their debts. It is in this context that we doubt if the potential of “state empowerment” for ethnic minority women to promote gender equality by joint titling for married women will be helpful. Will “both names on the land document” be the right way to compensate, so to say, the damage done by the loss of women’s role in farming the forest and social environment?

Matri-isation, spontaneous cultural switches, and gender equality

Matrilocal marriage to ensure, to protect, and to increase land rights for patri women?

Laos already has a well-known protection system of land rights for women and one of its pillars is matrilocal residence. It is in this perspective that we want to highlight the utmost importance of the capability of matrilocal marriage to empower women from within the system and sustaining gender equality over generations. Libraries are full of documents produced by women’s studies on the importance of women having land rights, and numerous NGOs work tirelessly day and night to enable this (Landesa⁴³). Laos has a cultural heritage, so to say, in-house, with its matrilineal-matrilocal social system, but the promotion of that system as a model for enhancing gender equality is so far lacking, while in other countries, such as China and Vietnam, matrilocal marriage is promoted as a solution to reduce the gender gap (Schenk-Sandbergen, 2014).

A new study by Robinson and Gottlieb (2021) on matrilineal societies in Africa, shows that intergenerational inheritance rights on land put women and men of the household at the same level of authority, and even though male figures tend to have more power in the political sphere, inheritance remains an important feature in the social structure which can match the importance of the men’s position and prestige. The continuation of intergeneration, autonomous inheritance land rights is a crucial dimension in the research of Robinson and Gottlieb (2021, p. 90). They state that it is not just “owning” land that leads to better outcomes of gender equality for women, but that the land must be inherited through the matriline to affect gender norms and political engagement. The findings of their research show that owning resources, such as land and house “alone” is not sufficient to generate gender-equal behavior: “women who own land but did not inherit it through the matriline are no different from those without land on our outcomes of interest.” In other words, to allocate a plot of land to women is not enough to empower them. The security of inheritance by the daughter creates a social environment and empowerment in which a strong and positive role of women can thrive. The authors continue, “we only see more gender progressive behavior within communities where a sufficient proportion of households practice matrilineality” (p. 90). They provide direct evidence that women’s land inheritance and matrilocal residence—both of which are strongly driven by matrilineal kinship—close the gender gap in political participation and promote gender-equal norms.

These findings from Africa are very relevant for Laos as they make empirical and theoretical contributions to the general debate over the determinants of women’s empowerment (p. 70). Therefore, treasure your matri heritage before it is too late! It is the unnoticed jewel in the crown of all women in Laos and beyond.

In earlier studies, examples are reported of cultural switches of ethnic women adopting aspects of the lifestyle of their Lao Tai sisters.⁴⁴ Cases of Khamu and Hmong women who want to empower themselves by adopting aspects of the Lao Lum matri-lifestyle, point to the possibility of reducing gender inequality through the expansion of the influence of the matrisystem (Schenk-Sandbergen, 2012). In Nahom Lue and Khamu intermarriages are well known and intermarriage between ethnic groups is not a taboo. Moreover, the visual differences between communities seem to be fading. We hardly saw women wearing their traditional ethnic clothes and costumes in daily life in the villages. Only at a touristic place nearby, on the road to Phonsaly, did I sadly spot an overdose of authentic outfits. Elderly women, dressed up, tried to sell ethnic souvenirs to the tourists (Goudineau, 2015).

Is it realistic to expect a switch to matrilocal marriage in former patrilocal communities? In China they did. A study by Wang et al. (2018), shows that in villages very near to Nahom, just over the Laos-China border, there was an amazing increase from patri- to matrilocal marriages in the Dai community.⁴⁵ Wang’s paper investigates the impact of rubber cultivation by women’s natal households on women’s decisions about matrilocal residence after marriage in an ethnic-minority region of Southwest China from the perspectives of family labor and resource endowment. Using the data collected from a comprehensive household survey of small-scale rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Southwest China, the empirical results suggest that the economic factors go beyond the traditional custom of the Dai women and determine a woman’s decision for matrilocal residence. The labor shortage of a woman’s household may foster the incidence of matrilocal residence, while a woman whose natal household possesses more rubber plantations has a higher probability of matrilocal residence, implying that matrilocal residence may be associated with a woman’s land use rights.

The study of Wang et al. (2018) confirms earlier experience in Laos and suggests that the adoption of matrilocal marriage has a positive effect on the social environment of women living in a former patri-, subordinated position. The excellent study of Lindeborg (2012, p. 136) shows that also in her village in Luang Namtha, Hmong women because of rubber cultivation are now, “living in the woman’s home village, even while they are still supporting their parents-in-law. A tendency is therefore for some couples, where the wife grew up in HatNyao, to move back to her village of origin to start cultivating rubber. Several other examples indicated this trend. This means the patrilineal clan structures could get weakened as they are no longer living in the same place as their ancestors. In turn, this might have an effect on gender relations and improve women’s status. There were also several households who had nieces and nephews living with them, not only on the man’s side, but the woman’s relatives as well.” The trends described above imply an expansion of the gender equality matri-sphere of influence. Perhaps the rubber certificate (land title) with joint ownership might have the same attractive association for potential patri-bridegrooms and open new matri-horizons in Nahom and other villages in the uplands.

What may be the most desirable form of registration for women’s rights to land?

What is the best procedure of registration to ensure women’s land rights regarding the “names” on land certificates and land titles? Agarwal (1994b, p. 1460) states that given the complexities it is not possible to specify this question with precision for all contexts. But a specification in broad terms should be attempted. According to Agarwal independent rights are preferable to joint titles with husbands for several reasons: “Firstly, with joint titles it can be difficult for women to gain control over their share in case of marital breakup; Secondly, women would be less in a situation to escape from a situation of marital conflict or violence because women are more tied up to men in that case; Thirdly, wives may have different land-use priorities from husbands which are in a better position to act upon with independent land rights; Fourthly, women with independent land rights are better placed to control the produce; Fifthly, with joint titles the question on how the land would subsequently be inherited could prove a contentious one” (1994b, p. 1460).

The reasons Agarwal provides for independent land rights for women will become more valid in view of the forthcoming land titling project in Laos. However, to avoid confusion Agarwal clearly states that, “having joint titles with husbands would be better for women than having no land rights at all; but many of the advantages of having land would not accrue to women by joint titles alone” (1994b, p. 1460). Many more pre-conditions must be in place of course to empower and strengthen women of patri communities. The strengthening of capacity building and awareness creation at the village and institutional level of the Lao Women’s Union is self-evident.

Conclusion: no stepchild. Treasure your matri heritage before it is too late!

The lobby and standardization of the formalization of “joint titling” in land titling in general for all women in Laos will undermine the individual customary land rights of Lao-Tai matri-women on top of the already on-going negative gender impact of “turning land into capital” policies which erodes the intergenerational, sustainable gender equality. Therefore, to secure formal land rights for women, differentiation between two kinship/residence/inheritance systems is necessary in the planned land titling project.

For matri women, the individual, autonomous, customary matri land rights should be protected in land titling (land law), and awareness (LWU) should be enhanced about the impact of the loss of rice land and related socio-economic changes, endangering the existing gender equality in the lowlands. The existing iron gender guidelines, already used in the land administration offices in districts and provinces, should also be continued in the planned land titling, as follows:

if a woman inherits land from her parents, her name will be put in the land document, and when a man inherits land from his parents, his name will be put in the land document. In case of land received or bought after marriage both, husband and wife names, will be put in the land title; in case the wife will have her husband’s name in the land document for her inherited land and opposite, both husband and wife have to sign a letter of agreement with the village authority to have a joint ownership.

Laos has already a well-known form of protection of land rights/land tenure for women and one of its pillars is matrilocal residence. As the above findings showed matrilocal marriage for women of ethnic minority women can be a determinant for their empowerment and key to improving land tenure/land rights and increasing gender equality. Under these conditions, the promotion of “joint ownership” and “both names on the land title document” might be favorable for patri-women and men as a tool to support the matri-isation process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Research Committee on Lao Women was founded in 1955 in one of the liberated zones of the Lao People’s Party. See Ngaosyvathn (1993, pp. 34–40).

2 The socialist equality between men and women under the Pathet Lao was different from the current “neo-liberal” concept of gender equality of the past two decades. In the past it was about the equal participation in the revolutionary struggle against colonialism and the contribution of women in the liberation war against neo-colonialism. See for the current gender equality goals of the Lao Government: https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2022-11/undp_lao_pdr_gender_strategy_and_action_plan_2022-2026-signed.pdf

3 https://lao.unfpa.org/en/news/advocating-womens-rights-and-gender-equality-today-sustainabletomorrow

4 In 2003 the National Commission for the Advancement of Women (NCAW) was established under the Prime Minister’s Office after the ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and Violence Against Women (CEDAW). In 2016 the Commission was re-installed under the Lao Women’s Union with the main task to formulate and implement a national policy on gender equality, to eliminate discrimination against women; and coordinate the mainstreaming of gender equality in all public sectors of public life (FAO, 2018).

5 This includes also Lue and Phu-Thai communities. Other subgroups of the Lao-Kadai, such as the Tai Dam and Tai Deng, are predominantly patrilocal and patrilineal.

6 In the Global Gender Index 2022 of the World Economic Forum, Laos ranks the best of all countries in the world regarding “economic participation and opportunity”: Lao PDR (88.3%), Thailand (79.5%), and Philippines (79.4%) rank the highest, while Korea (59.2%), Fiji (58.6%), and Japan (56.4%) rank lowest. See: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2022.pdf. Added with other indicators as education, health and empowerment there is an increase in rank of the Lao PDR on the gender gap index in 2022 through the 2015–2022 period, namely score 0.73. That means that out of 146 countries, Laos ranks 53 (p. 10 and pp. 222/223), after the Philippines and Singapore, and third in ASEAN of ten members. Life expectancy for women is higher (69.7 years) than for men (66.1 years) and sex ratio at birth being 99.8/100 in favor of women, https://www.undp.org/laopdr/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment. See for criticism of gender gap indexes by international development organizations: Liebowitz and Zwingel (2014).

7 Bilateral means that the family name and property can be transferred through the father to the son, or the mother to the daughter.

8 For instance: Brao or Lavé, Ta Oi (Oy), Kathang, Ong, Suay, and Sou in the south; and the Nyouane, Lahu, and Pray in the north of Laos.

9 To avoid boring repetition in this paper, I use the prefix patri- (patrilineal-patrilocal) and matri- (matrilineal-matrilocal) referring to the crucial aspects of the two social systems: descent, kinship, post-marital residence system and inheritance rights.

10 The Land Information Working Group (LIWG) is currently the only organization in Laos focusing on land rights, including women’s land rights. The objectives of the study were: Look into various situations for women land rights in practice in Laos; Understand the situation of women in the current context of agricultural transition; Understand the risks for women’s land rights to be undermined during transformation and LUP processes and registration projects.

11 I am very thankful for the cooperation, expertise and positivity of the team consisting of: Phetsakhone Somphongbouthakanh, Head of team, Gender Equality & Social Inclusion Consultant; Engsone Sisomphone, Faculty of Social Science, National University of Laos; Yardaloun Sipasert, Faculty of Law and Politic Sciences, National University of Laos Kong Chanthaphet, Lao Biodiversity Association.

12 See: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/09/04/world-bank-to-support-landadministration-titling-in-lao-pdr

13 See: https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P169669

14 See in this respect the brilliant analysis of Gough (Schneider & Gough, 1961), in chapter 16, The Modern Disintegration of Matrilineal Descent Groups, pp. 631–652.

15 Firstly, the ethnic community of the Garo’s in North-eastern India, secondly, the Nayars in Kerala, the Southwestern part of India, and thirdly the Singhalese in Sri Lanka.

16 In the Lao PDR—United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2022–2026, gender equality is earmarked as one of the six guiding principles See the brochure, https://laopdr.un.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/UNSDCF_brochure_web_spread.pdf.

17 See for an interesting interpretation, history and meaning of the gender equality concept in Laos the article of Faming (2018).

18 There is no space to explain the reason for the ignorance of the matri system but four biases are striking: (1) Main focus in the discourse on land rights in Laos is on legal recognition of customary communal land rights for the uplands, in which women are broadly ignored; (2) Many Western development- and gender consultants are brought up in the “Women and Development” tradition, based on the subordination of women in patriarchal societies, and therefore overlook the meaning and importance of land rights in matriliny. (3). Aversion for “elite” cultural dominance, (4) Fear for endangering foreign donor funding.

19 Unfortunately, Kenney-Lazar (2016) does not differentiate food security in the matri- and patri system.

20 Internationally the Lao matri cultural heritage is also the true stepchild and blind spot and unknown in the feminist world. Laos does not even appear in Heide Goettner-Abendroth’s (2013) groundbreaking life’s work, her opus magnum, “Matriarchal Societies: Studies on Indigenous Cultures across the Globe” in which she defines the topic and provides a world tour of examples.

21 There is an almost cheerful confidence that legislation will solve the problems of women in, e.g., climate change and disasters. See ADB, June 2022, “Women’s resilience in the Lao people’s democratic republic, how laws and policies promote gender equality in climate change and disaster risk management.”

22 In my earlier studies I noticed a tendency for non-Lao ethnic households to adopt a more bilateral kinship and inheritance patterns and changing gender ideologies when they move closer to ethnic Lao-Tai communities, or to urban centres. This process has been described as “matri-isation.” Since we made our first observations in 1995, we have found more preliminary evidence that suggests that some women in patri-ethnic minorities are adopting aspects of the matri-lifestyle of the Lao women in order to empower themselves. Resettlement policies, better roads, and increased means of transportation have drastically increased the opportunities for ethnic minority women and girls to move around, allowing them to become aware of other lifestyles, customs and habits.

23 The standardizing of the ethnic diversity into the dominant, national Lao history, culture, socioeconomic- and political system.

24 Interviews with staff members from government and development organizations in Vientiane, in provinces and districts included 10 (four women) government staff in Vientiane, 45 (19 women) government staff in provinces and districts and four (all women) development organization staff. One hundred and forty-three (77 women) people were interviewed in seven villages (Somphongbouthakanh & Schenk-Sandbergen, 2020, p. 4).

25 See note 22 above.

26 Not sure if it was the credit programme related to the “One District, One Product” ODOP project on basket weaving from bamboo.

27 We had three focus group discussions in the village: one for women (12 participants) and one for men (seven participants), one mixed for the history of the village. Twenty people participated in the division of labor game. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted and short conversations during our walks in the village. Other methodology as mentioned at p. 7 was also carried out.

28 No homestead land is shown in the land tax record book. Most probably there is a separate administration as we saw two books with different colors.

29 Studies on the impact of the dramatic socio-economic transformation on gender relations in Lao PDR are rare. An exception is the Ph.D. of Khouangvichit (2010).

30 Interview Vandana Shiva. “But this nature? That are we!” by Naïm Derbali, De Groene Amsterdammer, 2 dec, 2021, jaargang 145, nr. 48, pp. 18–21.

31 Our household interviews show that the fee for issuing a land title is very high at about 1.500,000 kip per piece for land measurement, but villagers have in addition to pay DSA and fuel to the government staff. So, the cost for issuing a land title mount easily up to millions of kip per plot. This payment is a considerable constraint for most of the villagers as they cannot pay this cost. This is confirmed by PONRE in Viengkham district. Poverty is a problem to obtain the legal land title eventhough in theory the fee is low. But in practice villagers cannot refuse to contribute to the food allowance and other costs of the staff who do the survey work in the village.

32 The office of the land management department of Viengkam district is in a brand-new white, fairy tale like palace building, located in the middle of nowhere. Really a remarkable architectural design. In the hall is an impressive moquette with flashing lights showing the detailed planning of the utopian master plan and city planning lay-out for the new capital in the future of Vientiane Province, namely, Viengkham. We were presented with a nice video showing the amazing, futuristic development plan in progress since 2015 for a new capital of the province.

33 Being the first overseas route and connecting with the railway system in China, Chinese technology and equipment is used (Wilms, 2021) and a major project in implementing the Belt & Road Initiative.

34 See studies on road nr 13, South, and other roads, Håkangård (1992) and Trankell (1993).

35 See Lyttleton and Li (2017) about the role of crossing border Guanxi (reciprocity) by incoming Chinese men.

36 See for an interesting examination and discussion of merits and critics on resettlement in Laos the article of High (2008) and High et al. (2009).

37 In the Khamu community it is a well-known tradition, to avoid expensive bride prices, that the bridegroom lives in the house of his in-laws for some years and pays the bride-price with his labor. In a study of Choulamany-Khamphoui et al. (2003, p. 24) in a village very near to Nahom she shows the usual culture switch for the Khamu Lue, “After a man is married, he must reside with his wife with her family for a predetermined period of time, usually between 1 and 4 years. During this period, children who are born will take the clan name of the wife. After this period ends, the couple will have a second wedding before they are able to move out from the bride’s home, either to the groom’s home, or into a house of their own. From this time onward, the couple is considered to belong to the husband’s family, and additional children who are born will now assume the clan name of the husband.”

38 The National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), with funding from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, jointly executed the NTFP Project from July 1995 to September 2001. The project was designed as an Integrated Conservation and Development Project (ICDP) with the goal to conserve forest biodiversity by promoting sustainable economic exploitation of non-timber forest products (NTFP) at community and provincial levels (“Proposal for the Sustainable Utilization of Non-Timber Forest Products in Lao PDR,” as cited in Ingles & Karki, 2001).

39 The studies of Håkangård (2004), Phengkhay (1999), and Rodenburg and Phengkhay (2000) have shown in detail the role of women in shifting cultivation, use of forest resources and negative gender consequences of forest land allocation.

40 A water tank project is in progress. Each house will have a tap and a water meter in their compound, and they must pay for the water used. In case of repair later they have a saving fund. It is a joint venture between the Government and the village community.

41 See the brilliant study of Lindeborg (2012) on the Hmong rubber village of HatNyao in Northern Laos and the everyday lives of women and men there.

42 There is no space to elaborate on the increasing polarization of poor and rich in the village. Elite appropriation of collective land by the rich and powerful is often overlooked in the current aim to acknowledge customary land rights for ethnic minorities (see the tragedy of the commons discussion).

43 See https://www.landesa.org/what-we-do/

44 The 2004 ADB Country Gender Strategy Report states that ethnic minority societies in Lao PDR are dynamic and constantly changing. Rapid social change is especially evident in upland villages that are relocated closer to roads and markets or are being merged with other villages that include other ethnic groups. The report states (p. 42): “A recent study of relocated ethnic minority villages in Luang Namtha and Sekong found numerous changes in cultural patterns, including the adoption of lowland-style housing, dress, marriage practices, and technologies. However, the gender division of labour in resettled households remains essentially unchanged, with women and girls continuing to carry out most of the household work in addition to livelihood activities. Traditional norms and practices are also changing quickly as young people of ethnic minorities migrate to urban centres, and to Thailand, to work part of the year.”

45 In rural China, women and men have an equal right to obtain allocated land from the village collective. However, women who marry outside of the village generally lose the right to land tenure in their natal villages, while women living in their natal villages after marriage are allowed not only to hold their land tenure but also to inherit land upon the death of their husband and parents, provided that their own land tenures have not expired.