One in three women worldwide will be physically, sexually or otherwise abused during her lifetime.

At Habitat for Humanity, we have asked ourselves: what is the key to enabling women to be safe in their homes? Recent research suggests that at least part of the answer is for women to have formal ownership of property.

Studies conducted by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in South Asia found that increased levels of property ownership by women correlated with substantially lower risks of domestic abuse and violence. Up to 84.5 percent of women said they believed property ownership increased their status within their family.

Furthermore, property ownership empowered a larger number of women to negotiate or walk out of marriages that may have been abusive. In one study, 71 percent of women who owned property left an abusive situation, compared with 19 percent of women who did not own property. Unfortunately, women around the world face significant barriers to owning property.

For example, in Zambia women are denied equal property rights because of discriminatory inheritance laws. When a person dies without a will, their estates are distributed under either customary (e.g., tribal) or Islamic law, neither of which provides women with the same inheritance rights as men. Under customary law, a woman often has no rights to her husband’s land or property. If her husband dies, she is faced with the choice of either marrying his brother or being displaced from her home.

In Bangladesh, as recently as in 2006, fewer than 10 percent of all women had their names on marital property papers such as titles to land or homesteads.

HFH Ireland programmes promote gender equality by:

•  Actively involving women in the decision-making process.
• Recognising the existence of diverse types of families, such as women-headed households, single-person homes and other combinations of family arrangements that in turn generate diverse housing needs.
• Considering the different roles of women and men in home upkeep, not only in economic terms, but also emotional, psychological and the establishment of community support and social networks.
• Guaranteeing access to diverse housing finance options for women, including subsidies and credit.
• Improving the legal protection of land tenure and housing for women.

Habitat homeowner Magdalene Mbewe from Ng'ombe, Zambia stands outside her old house.