Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T00:33:15.622Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - The Long Arm of Resistance: Refusal to Care for Parents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2020

Rachel E. Brulé
Affiliation:
Boston University
Get access

Summary

Can enforcement of India’s gender equal property inheritance reform advance equality by bringing about meaningful reorganization of familial responsibilities? Quotas increasing women’s political representation strengthen enforcement of gender-equalizing land inheritance reform (as Chapter 5 shows). Such enforcement may increase conflict within the family. This chapter finds families are more likely to block equal distribution of inheritance to daughters, conditional on the anticipated cost of losing ancestral property rights. This “cost” can be transformed into a benefit for the entire family when female gatekeepers spur integrative bargaining solutions, striking agreements about the distribution of rights and responsibilities across multiple domains simultaneously. This chapter identifies the causal effect on behavior of as-if randomly applied reservations for female elected heads of local government on the willingness of children to support aging parents. It finds that when daughters leverage female gatekeepers to exercise symbolic land rights, conflict is unlikely, and women are more able to care for aging parents, choosing closer marriages and planning to financially support parents. However, when a daughter gains gender-equal property inheritance after exiting marriage negotiations, all children revoke support for parents.

Type
Chapter
Information
Women, Power, and Property
The Paradox of Gender Equality Laws in India
, pp. 164 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×