Gender gaps in food: 150 million more women went hungry than men in 2021

Source: The post is based on the article “Gender gaps in food: 150 million more women went hungry than men in 2021” published in Down To Earth on 7th August 2022.

What is the News?

CARE, an international humanitarian organization has released a report titled “Food Security and Gender Equality: A synergistic understudied symphony”. The report highlights the link between Gender Inequality and Food Insecurity.

What are the key findings of the report?

Gender Gap in Food Security: The gap between men and women’s food security is growing worldwide. As many as 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. Among them, 150 million more women were food insecure than men.

Gender Inequality and Food Security: The report found that across 109 countries, as gender inequality goes up, food security goes down. For instance, nations with high gender inequality, such as Yemen, Sierra Leone and Chad, experienced the lowest food security and nutrition.

Women bear a bigger food insecurity burden: Even when both men and women are technically food insecure, women often bear bigger burdens, in this situation men are found eating smaller meals and women are found skipping meals.

Employed Women Experienced Less Food Insecurity: When women are employed and earning money or when they are directly involved in farming, they are less likely to experience food insecurity.

Women more Likely to Live in Poverty: Women are more likely than men to live in extreme poverty because their work is underpaid or not paid at all. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, women took on three times as much unpaid work as men.

What are the suggestions given by the report?

SDG Goal 5 talks about achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls by 2030.

This requires urgent action to eliminate the many root causes of discrimination that still curtail women’s rights in private and public spheres.