While legal frameworks for gender equality in property rights have advanced significantly in Ghana, the persistence of customary tenure systems has created a profound disconnect between statutory guarantees and lived realities. This article moves beyond conventional legal analysis to interrogate how this gap between law and practice actively erodes both social cohesion and sustainable development. Employing a dialectical materialist framework, the study analyzes the contradictions between constitutional protections, judicial precedents, and the customary norms that govern approximately 80 percent of Ghana’s land. Through systematic examination of legislative instruments, Ghana Living Standards Survey data, and case law, the article demonstrates that women’s property insecurity constitutes a form of horizontal inequality that fractures community trust and undermines the social contract.

Furthermore, it reveals a critical sustainability trap of insecure tenure, which disincentivizes the long-term environmental stewardship and climateresilient agriculture essential for Ghana’s future. The article concludes that the enforcement of women’s property rights is not merely a matter of legal compliance or gender justice but a strategic lever for strengthening community resilience, rebuilding institutional trust, and advancing the interconnected goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The findings offer a transformative reform framework that centers social cohesion as a prerequisite for sustainable development in legally pluralistic societies across Africa. Critically, this framework is applicable beyond Ghana, offering transferable lessons for other post-colonial African states navigating the tensions between statutory equality and customary practice.

Keywords: Ghana, Women’s Property Rights, Gender Equality, Inheritance/Succession, Legal Pluralism, Social Cohesion, Sustainable Development