CHAPTER SIX

Gender Dimensions Of
Nutrition
 Objectives
At the end of the section Students will be able to:

• Describe basic concept of gender

• Explain the importance of women’s empowerment
to improve household nutrition.
• understand the ideas on gender roles and division
of labour and how they relate to maternal and
child nutrition.
• Understand ways of incorporating gender issues
in nutrition interventions.
 Introduction
• Gender Dimensions of Nutrition refer to how
gender roles, relations, and inequalities
influence and are influenced by nutritional
outcomes.
• These dimensions are crucial in understanding
and addressing
– malnutrition,
– food insecurity, and
– health disparities across different populations.
 Gender Roles and Responsibilities

• Division of Labor: Women often bear the

primary responsibility for food production,
preparation, and caregiving, yet may lack access
to resources such as land, credit, and education.
• Time Constraints: Women's heavy workloads,
including unpaid care work, can limit their ability
to care for their own and their families' nutrition.
• Men's Roles: In many settings, men control
household income and food purchases, affecting
food access and allocation.
 Cont…
Access and Control Over Resources
• Food and Income: Women may have limited control
over household income and decisions about food
purchases and distribution.
• Agricultural Resources: Women farmers often have
less access to land, tools, extension services, and
inputs, which affects food production and household
nutrition.
Intra-Household Food Distribution
• Inequities: Cultural norms may prioritize men and
boys over women and girls in food allocation,
especially during food shortages.
• Maternal Nutrition: Pregnant and lactating women
may be at higher risk of undernutrition due to both
biological needs and social disadvantages.
 Cont…
Education and Knowledge
• Nutrition Education: Women with more education
are more likely to make informed dietary choices for
themselves and their families.
• Gender Gaps in Education: Disparities in
educational attainment between boys and girls can
impact long-term nutrition outcomes.
Health and Nutrition Outcomes
• Women and Girls: More vulnerable to
micronutrient deficiencies, anemia, and diet-related
health issues due to both physiological and socio-
cultural reasons.
• Men and Boys: Often overlooked in nutrition
programs, yet also face diet-related health risks,
particularly in adolescence and adulthood.
 Cont…
Empowerment and Agency
• Decision-Making: Empowering women to make decisions
about household resources improves dietary diversity and
child nutrition.
• Leadership: Including women in leadership roles in
community nutrition programs enhances effectiveness and
sustainability.
Gender-Based Violence and Nutrition
• Impact: Gender-based violence, including intimate partner
violence, affects women’s mental health, economic capacity,
and food security.
Policy and Program Implications
• Gender-Sensitive Interventions: Programs should
address gender disparities, involve both women and men,
and challenge harmful gender norms.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Gender-disaggregated data is
essential to assess the impact of nutrition interventions and
ensure equitable outcomes.
 Basic Concept Of Gender

• Is that Gender and sex different?

• Sex refers to the biological attributes of men and

women; these attributes are universal and cannot be
changed.

• Gender refers to social, behavioural and culturally

specific characteristics defining the behaviour of
women and men, boys and girls, and the relationship
between them.
 Basic Concept Of Gender

• Is that Gender and sex different?

• Sex refers to the biological attributes of men and

women; these attributes are universal and cannot be
changed.

• Gender refers to social, behavioural and culturally

specific characteristics defining the behaviour of
women and men, boys and girls, and the relationship
between them.
 Basic Concept Of Gender

• Is that Gender and sex different?

• Sex refers to the biological attributes of men and

women; these attributes are universal and cannot
be changed.
• Sex refers to biological attributes that identify a
person as a male or female

• Gender refers to social, behavioural and culturally

specific characteristics defining the behaviour of
women and men, boys and girls, and the
relationship between them.
 Cont…
• Gender roles, status and relations vary from place to place
• Gender is, thus, not about woman or man but about the
relationship between them.

• Gender equality means when women and men enjoy equal

rights, opportunities and entitlements in civil and political life
• Gender inequality is the cause and consequence of hunger and
malnutrition

Sex/Gender?
• Women have long hair and men have short hair.
• Men are paid more than women for the same work (in many
countries)
Harmful Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and
Children

• Many international legal instruments on human

rights further reinforce individual rights, and also
protect and prohibit discrimination against-
specific groups, in particular women.

• Traditional cultural practices reflect values and

beliefs held by members of a community for
periods often spanning generations.
 Cont…
• Every social grouping in the world has specific
traditional cultural practices and beliefs, some of
which are beneficial to all members, while others
are harmful to a specific group, such as women.

• What are the harmful traditional cultural

practices and beliefs that are common in your
area?
 Cont…
• These harmful traditional practices include:
 female genital mutilation (FGM);
 forced feeding of women;
 early marriage;
 the various taboos or practices which prevent
women from controlling their own fertility;
 nutritional taboos and traditional birth
practices;
 son preference and its implications for the
status
of the girl child;
 female infanticide;
 early pregnancy; and dowry price
A. Gender equality matters for nutrition

• Rural women and girls in low-income countries play

an important role in maintaining household food
and nutrition security through three key channels:
 Agriculture and food;
 Care practices;
 Health

 In order to lower levels of malnutrition, rural

women and girls need to be able to make choices
around accessing the assets and services required
for improved nutrition – they need to be
empowered.
The central role of gender in determining nutrition
 Cont…
 Gender equality influences nutrition through food
security
 Agricultural roles in a commercialised world
 Control over income
 Control over land
 Access to irrigation
 Access to finance
 Access to extension and rural advisory services
 Cont…
• Gender equality influences nutrition through
care
 Juggling labour, employment and care
 Accessing clean water for good nutrition
 Accessing health services and information for
good
nutrition
 Cont…
• Gender equality influences nutrition through
health
 Access to healthcare and information about
nutrition
 Food consumption patterns
 Early pregnancy
 B. Gender-sensitive programming for nutrition in a rural world

• Gender Transformative Approach (GTA) is a

system that emphasis on empowering women
and girls by tackling underlying discriminatory
social norms by embedding in all nutrition
programming.
• GTAs that can be embedded in nutrition-
sensitive programming in the rural world.
 Cont…
1. Engendering laws and
policies for better nutrition
 Policies to reduce the gender
wage gap and improve
conditions for female
employees in the agrarian
sector through secure
contracts, maternity leave, child
care and breastfeeding facilities
 Family law that provides equal
rights to marital property on Positive behaviour &
divorce or death of spouse – positive attitudes

including the land rights of

widows
 Cont…
2. Community dialogue for better nutrition
 GTAs can improve nutrition outcomes through
participatory methodologies (such as games,
drawings, role play or drama) to bring women
and men together in a reflective dialogue around
harmful social norms.
 Engaging men in this process is key, so they
understand the barriers that women face
 Cont…
3. Knowledge and skills for better
nutrition
• Community dialogue can be
accompanied by efforts to increase
rural women’s knowledge and skills to
improve nutrition.
• Building up their capacity for
homestead food production will help
increase dietary diversity by allowing
them to grow fruits and vegetables or
tend to small livestock, whilst fulfilling
their domestic and child care
responsibilities
• This may also provide them with
additional income to accumulate assets
• Knowledge and skills can be channelled
through the arts or through
community-level organization,
 C. Moving forward:
strengthening gender equality in
nutrition-sensitive rural
• The SDGs callprogrammes
for an end to all forms of
malnutrition (2.2) and an end to all forms of
discrimination against women and girls (5.1).

• The EU recognises that nutrition outcomes and

the empowerment of women and girls are
inextricably linked.
• Women’s empowerment is counted as an
intermediate outcome of the Nutrition Results
Chain.
 Cont…
1. Gender analysis
• Gender analysis is a systematic effort to identify and
understand the roles, needs, opportunities and life
circumstances of men and women in a changing
socio-economic context.

• Nutrition programming in the rural sector must be

reinforced by an in-depth understanding of how
women’s empowerment and social norms impact on
the quality of pathways to nutrition.
• There are many different frameworks for conducting
a gender
analysis.
 Cont…
• The following three key areas of enquiry can be followed
to inform nutrition sensitive-programming:
 The different roles that rural women and men play in the
three key determinants of nutrition: food; care practices;
and health (gender division of labour)
 The levels of decision making and control that rural
women and girls enjoy, and how this affects the fulfilment
of their roles in nutrition (empowerment)
 How social and cultural attitudes and behaviours in the
rural world act as key determinants of women’s and girls’
empowerment for nutrition (social norms)
 Cont…
Table . Gender analysis following three key areas of enquiry for
nutrition-sensitive programming
Cont…
2. Measuring progress through indicators
Cont…
• Indicators should go beyond recording the number of female
beneficiaries who have been reached by a programme and
track the progress towards eliminating the discriminatory
social norms that prevent rural women and girls from fulfilling
their potential to improve nutrition.

• Many guides and methodologies exist to help programmers set

appropriate gender-sensitive indicators for nutrition. Such as:
 Minimum dietary diversity of women of reproductive age
(MDD-W)
 Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI)-
measures the inclusion of women in the agricultural sector.
– PRO-WEAI has included empowerment measurements in
the agriculture sector relating to nutrition and health
 Cont…
• Do not be over ambitious when establishing indicators
for women’s empowerment or social norm change.
– Indicators must attempt to measure progress towards
change rather than change itself.

• It is generally acknowledged that there is a dearth of

information available relating to the complex gender
relationships around agriculture and nutrition .

• When setting indicators on nutrition status, bear in

mind that sex-disaggregated data on the key forms of
malnutrition only exist for children under-five.
 Conclusion
• Integrating gender considerations into nutrition
policy and practice is critical for achieving
equitable and sustainable improvements in
nutrition and health.
• A gender-sensitive approach enhances the
effectiveness of interventions and supports
broader goals of gender equality and social
justice.
THANKS!