“I’ve focused my education on inequity in any way that comes about, but the biggest issue for me is public health and the social conditions and determinants of health, and I think land is a really big part of that,” explains Madison Shaffer ’20, a graduating health and society major and recent Fulbright Research Award recipient to Malawi.

Expanding on work she began while studying abroad in Kenya, Shaffer’s Fulbright research will explore gender inequities of land rights in Malawi—where, like in Kenya, legal efforts have been made in recent years to promote women’s land rights. Despite these policies, however, “There are still customary practices in place in these communities that override that legal language,” she says. In fact, around 70 percent of households in Malawi rely on women’s income from agricultural labor, but fewer than 20 percent of those households sit on land controlled by women who either work or live on it.

“If you have access to an economic resource like land, you’re going to feel more empowered in your own health,” she says. In fact, everything from physical safety and mental health to food access can be tied to land ownership. To improve conditions for these women, Shaffer will focus on collecting their stories through interviews and questionnaires.

“I want to see if women feel like they can access land, and if they can’t, what are the barriers that they have realized or experienced in their lives? If I can record that and piece it together, it would be helpful in moving discussions forward of more equitable land laws in Malawi and in other countries in Africa that are experiencing similar problems,” she says.