The issue of land rights and that of gender are strongly affected by the prevalent economic and social policy regimes, at both national and global levels. The dominant policy regimes decide to what extent movements for securing land rights or gender equality encounter favourable conditions and have some hope for securing positive gains. This paper seeks to analyse the nature of the economic policy regimes associated with globalisation, and to contextualize the issues of land rights and gender in the present era. It illustrates the main theoretical proposition with reference to the experience of India in the 1990s.