Are inheritance rights bad for women?

- More sati in C19 Bengal where widows had property rights

- More foeticide & cousin marriage w/ female inheritance in

- Islamic inheritance rights, high cousin marriage in MENA,

- Women didn't inherit in Europe & LAC so left for work

Property ownership enhances women's autonomy & bargaining power. Where women are dependent on men, they cant leave bad marriages. That's undeniable.

BUT efforts to increase women's inheritance rights seem to backfire in communities that want to preserve assets 4 the male lineage

So I entirely understand why Indian feminists pushed for women's inheritance rights.

But in the Indian context of low female labour force participation & expectations that sons (not daughters) will support parents in old age, parents may prefer to promise assets for sons.

So even if you legislate female inheritance rights, parents try to circumvent this via foeticide and/or cousin marriage.

I think this is partly motivated by economics, they need to promise assets to sons as a quid pro quo for support in their old age.

And FLFP is low in India.

So to me, Indian women are caught in a terrible bind.

If they dont inherit land, they remain economically dependent on men.

If they do have legal inheritance rights, their parents may circumvent this in practice.

So here's a (materialist) explanation of why female inheritance laws have backfired.

Look at the percentage of women who expect sons (not daughters) to support them in old age.

This reflects low female employment & gender wage gaps

https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/IFSS/studies/36151/datasets/0003/sdaxml

Ofc this will get worse if female employment continues to plummet.

If only female employment was higher, they'd likely support their parents, & parents would promise them assets in turn.

The key is to make parents VALUE daughters.

An inheritance law may be the wrong tool..

Contrast this with (patrilineal) East Asia.

With labour-intensive growth, female employment skyrocketed, women increasingly supported their parents, and were valued in turn.

Filial piety is performed by both sons & daughters.