Policy reform toward gender equality in Ethiopia: Little by little the egg begins to walk

There is growing interest in how reforms in different policy areas can be formulated in order to be consistent in promoting gender equality and empowering women. We use data from the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey (ERHS) to show how two seemingly unrelated reforms—community-based land registration, undertaken since 2003, and changes in the Family Code implemented in 2000—may have created conditions that reinforce each other in improving gender equity. Our findings suggest that the land registration process and the reform of the Family Code had mutually reinforcing effects on women’s rights and welfare.