Strategies for enhancing women's access to their human and legal rights within the family

Abstract

Society has defined the home front, the family domain, as the sphere to which women legitimately belong and in which they should exercise most of their roles and responsibilities. It is a private sphere that is mostly regulated by customary and religious rules and regulations. Modem statutory law has also legislated the domain but for the most part, it is considered a private domain that should be run by those who belong to it within the family framework. To women and society, the family is also a source of socio-economic security. Besides giving them a sense of belonging and legitimacy according to societal expectations, it is also expected to provide real or imagined economic security for the women and to a limited extent, their families as well. At best, it should represent a source of women's economic empowerment.