01928nam a22001457a 4500 533264 533264 260506b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d Akua Vitoh, Priscilla 60386 Global frameworks, local realities: The myth of land formalisation in women's access to bank finance Social & Legal Studies 35(2), Apr, 2026: p.155-182 This article interrogates international development frameworks that link land formalisation to women's access to bank finance, arguing that such models misrecognise the socio-legal complexity of property relations in plural legal systems. Using Ghana as a case study, the analysis advances three central claims: first, that gendered divisions of unpaid labour constrain women's capacity to accumulate the capital needed for land acquisition, even where legal entitlements exist; second, that land is not simply an economic asset, but a culturally embedded resource shaped by kinship, lineage, and spiritual obligation; and third, that these embedded meanings generate widespread reluctance to use property as collateral, despite formal title. Drawing on mixed-methods data, the article demonstrates that while formalised property rights are necessary to meet bank lending requirements, they are insufficient to overcome the structural and cultural constraints that shape women's financial trajectories. Development strategies must engage with the semi-autonomous social fields through which gender, land, and finance are negotiated..-Reproduced https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09646639251347115?_gl=1*jw365m*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTc0MDE2NzQ5MC 4xNzc4MDU4MTYy*_ga_60R758KFDG*czE3NzgwNTgxNjEkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzgwNTgxNzAkajUxJGwwJGgzMDI1NDM2MjY. Women’s access to credit, Land rights and gender, Legal pluralism, Development finance, Customary law and property, Ghana 60387 Social & Legal Studies AR 0 0 ddc 0 0 408434 IIPA IIPA 2026-05-06 35(2), Apr, 2026: p.155-182 AR138776 2026-05-06 AR