This article presents findings from a survey of 3 000 rural women conducted by Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) in the ex-homeland areas of Msinga (KwaZulu-Natal), Keiskammahoek (Eastern Cape) and Ramatlabama (NorthWest). The article briefly presents key elements of the methodology and describes the three sites. The main focus of the article is on the findings of the survey, and in particular those that relate most directly to marriage and access to land. While one-off surveys such as this generally present a 'snapshot' of a particular moment in time, the survey included several questions that attempted to give an indication of change over time. The article describes these questions and presents the relevant findings.