Recent UNRISD research finds that the new generation of land tenure reforms introduced in the 19990s is not necessarily more gender equitable than earlier efforts, even though women’s ability to gain independent access to land is increasingly on the statutes. Includes the potential and limitations of the law; the limits of ‘market-friendly’ land reform; decentralization and devolution: finding justice ‘closer to home’?; divisions within civil society and the difficulties of building alliances; land is not a ‘magic bullet’; rethinking the agrarian household: shared and separate interests; implications for policy and research.