Changing discourses on gender and land: The example of Chiweshe, Zimbabwe, since the 1920s

• Land scarcity and patriarchal norms shape rural women's land rights in Chiweshe, Zimbabwe. • Oral histories reveal that some rural women once held land rights similar to men. • Provides a tentative periodisation of rural discourses on gender and land 1920s–2020s. • Shows how rural memory and narrative shape gendered land institutions over time. • Highlights oral history's value for studying rural social change and gendered land struggles.