Gender and Foodways
Intra-household Nutritional Inequities and Household Shocks: Evidence from Bangladesh Panel Data
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anna D'Souza, Sharad Tandon
Several studies find that in response to negative income and price shocks, households sacrifice diet quality and relatively expensive forms of calories to better maintain total calorie consumption. There is, however, little evidence on how the decline in diet quality is distributed across individual household members. We investigate how intra-household distributions of calories and nutrients respond to negative shocks using representative rural panel data from the 2011-12 and 2015 Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey. The data include individual-level dietary intake and household-level shocks (e.g., death of main earner, loss of assets, etc.) for over 5,000 households. We use a household fixed effects model to account for unobserved heterogeneity. Preliminary results suggest that negative shocks may disproportionately affect some members. The results have implications for the design of food and nutrition programs (e.g., nutritional safety nets that more explicitly account for gender dynamics). Given the growing recognition of the importance of measuring food and nutrition security at the individual level and the strong emphasis on gender equality in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we believe that knowing who is most affected when impoverished households cope with shocks is critical to tackling the first two SDGs of poverty and hunger.
Food Sovereignty, Gendered Economies and Everyday Practice: Examining the Role of Afrocolombian Women in Sustaining Localized Food Systems
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Katherine L. Turner, C. Julián Idrobo, Ana Maria Peredo, Annette Aurélie Desmarais
While social and political movements are the scale of action most often identified with food sovereignty-related struggles, everyday practices that allow food sovereignty to be actualized through the maintenance of localized food systems often go unrecognized. Women’s economic activities are also frequently muted in profiling local economies. In this paper we examine the nexus of food sovereignty and women’s everyday practice through an analysis of gendered food economies in Afro-descendent communities in the Chocó Department of Colombia. In this region deeply affected by armed conflict, drug trafficking and state neglect, Afrocolombian communities are defending their collective territories and small-scale food production practices through regional land and marine use planning processes that include new market linkages. Drawing on interviews, a household survey and focus group data gathered in early 2018 in the municipality of Bajo Baudó, Chocó, we present a preliminary analysis of the relationships between local food sovereignty, gendered economies and everyday practice. While predominantly male activities such as commercial fishing and agriculture have received more recognition and support from state and non-state actors, women play a critical, although undervalued role, in sustaining localized food systems through their food production and harvesting activities. Recognizing women’s muted contributions provides new insights into how food sovereignty is actualized not only through regional or national mobilizations but also through everyday practices that nourish households, sustain valued relationships with local food cultures, local resources and biodiversity, and allow for greater food self-sufficiency within regional processes of market integration.
Armenian Wine Sector and the Role of Women in Emergent Cultural, Social and Economic Capital
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stella Grigorian
In the last ten years, Armenian wine has exponentially grown its production and footprint with the infusion of more capital and technology, adherence to stricter quality control and subsequent access to the world market and international competitions. During this short time period, Armenian wine companies have branded themselves as “historic” wines and the narrative that has taken shape is one of origin and thousands of years of wine-making history. While proportionally, involvement in the current dynamic wine industry is still male-dominated, there are several women who hold prominent positions such as company CEO’s, wine makers, wine bar owners, government officials, academics, heads of foundations and consultants. Resulting from interviews conducted with these women, this paper explores their involvement and impact not only on the relatively new wine industry but also the development of new cultural capital via the emergence of a wine culture that is coupled with a new foodie scene, the development of new social capital through not only familial or educational connections, but, also via vast global networks and use of social media, all as they develop new economic capital. Traditionally, Armenian women made wine in the villages for their families. The paper explores the extent of women’s contemporary involvement on a global scale as well as in national cultural production has a direct result of this traditional practice and the extent that is new and completely emergent.
