WUNRN
UN
Human Rights Fact Sheet - 57 Pages - 2010
THE
RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD
Gender Excerpts
C. WOMEN
Women play a key role in achieving
food security. Yet women are often disproportionately affected by hunger, food
insecurity and poverty, largely as a result of gender inequality and their lack
of social, economic, civil and political rights and power. In many countries,
girls are twice as likely as boys to die from malnutrition and preventable
childhood disease, and it is estimated that almost twice as many women as men
suffer from malnutrition.
In many countries, women plan a
central role in food production......Yet women are in many instances
discriminated against in accessing the means for producing adequate food. They
are often disadvantaged in inheritance and ownership of land and other
property, as well as in access to credits, natural resources, technology,
vocational education and training, information and extension services. Because
of discrimination, women are also less likely to find and maintain a job with
adequate conditions. Their salaries are sometimes significantly lower than
those of men, including for identical or similar tasks or for work of equal
value. Many women are also employed in the informal sector, for instance in
domestic work and self-employment in precarious conditions. These situations
undermine their means to produce food and tend to afffect the food security of
female-headed households particularly seriously.
The Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women protects women's equal access to
work, land, credit, income and social security, which are essential to ensure
women's equal enjoyment of the right to food......
Women have specific dietary needs,
in particular in relation to their reproductive health. Infringement on the
right to adequate food of women of childbearing age, including adolescent
girls, could lead to life-threatening complications during pregnancy or
delivery. Malnutrition of pregnant and breastfeeding women can also result in
the malnutrition as well as physical and mental impairment of their children......
Women and girls may face
discrimination at home. In many countries, they receive less food than the male
members of the family, because of their lower status. Violence against women or
other practices that violate women's rights may also contribute to women's food
insecurity......In extreme cases., a preference for male children may lead to
female infanticide, including by means of deprivation of food and water. To
ensure women's enjoyment of the right to food, efforts need to be made to
rectify gender inequality both in the public and in the private sphere......
