ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that most Latin American agrarian reforms have directly benefited only men. It argues that the reforms have had this result largely because households are designated as the beneficiaries of an agrarian reform but only male household heads are incorporated into the new agrarian reform structures. The chapter presents a brief overview of thirteen Latin American agrarian reforms and of the available gender-disaggregated data on reform beneficiaries. To establish the context for the subsequent analysis, it provides a brief overview of the principal features of thirteen Latin American agrarian reforms. The potential redistributive impact of an agrarian reform largely reflects the political projects that the reform represents. The first three agrarian reforms carried out in Latin America—in Mexico, Bolivia, and Cuba—were the product of social revolutions. These three reforms differ, however, with respect to forms of tenancy and the organization of production in the reformed sector.
