Despite women form the bulk in feeding the world, they eat less and about 150 million women were hungry than men in 2021, according to a new analysis from CARE . The analysis shows that the number of hungry women versus hungry men grew 8.4 times.
“And the implications of the escalation of conflict in Ukraine will make the situation even worse for women, who play a crucial role across food systems and in feeding their families and communities. Gender equality is highly connected to food and nutrition security at a local, national, and global level. To put it simply, the more gender inequality there is in a country, the hungrier and more malnourished people are,” said CARE’s Global Advocacy Director – Food Systems Christine Campeau.
Though women form a big portion of global food producers and in charge of feeding their families, gender norms still significantly limit women’s own food security, CARE said.
Even when both men and women are technically food insecure, women often bear bigger burdens, it said. For example, in Somalia, men report eating smaller meals; women report skipping meals altogether. In Lebanon at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 85% of people reduced the number of meals they eat, but at the same time 85% of women were eating smaller portions, compared to only 57% of men. 66% of women started to eat lower quality food, compared to 43% of men.
HUNGER; DATA SET
Of the four major global datasets on gender, including the World Bank’s Gender Data Portal, the only sex disaggregated food indicators reinforce women’s role solely for their importance in reproduction: measuring anemia in women of childbearing age and counting stunting for children. Most food security datasets are strangely silent on gender. And, despite women being responsible for 90% of preparing and buying food, they are eating last and least.
CARE points out that the more gender inequality there is in a country, the hungrier people are. Despite this, there is not enough exploration of these trends and connections, it added.
Coming down heavily on lack of collection and incorporation of sex-disaggregated data, the analysis said that policy makers do not take the time to do comprehensive literature reviews,
CARE opined that global datasets should be publishing sex disaggregated data on food—whether the focus is on gender or on food. “At the very least, it is time to update our global understanding of food security and gender inequality,” they said.
Women often eat last and least in countries facing conflict, famine and hunger.
In nearly two-thirds of countries, women are more likely than men to report food insecurity.
When a crisis hits, women are usually first to sacrifice their own food to ensure their families have enough. Many times, they have the most responsibilities in the home, but the smallest amount of food.
Empowering women and girls can end hunger for good and transform whole communities.
For every year a girl stays in primary school, her future income increasesup to 20%.
