Divorce rulings emphasise value of women's roles

Two new judgments from the courts in Kenya and Zimbabwe underline changing judicial views about the role of women in building up a family home and the contribution that women, as wives and mothers, may be said, on divorce, to have made. In her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, Carmel Rickard writes that one stresses with new urgency that women who work in the home should stand up for the rights and, at divorce, be prepared to give evidence in court about the significance of their contribution to the home. The other notes that despite progressive decisions by the courts, at divorce most men still undervalue the contribution of women and are unwilling to agree to an equal share in the matrimonial property.