Empowering Women, Strengthening Children: A Multi-Level Analysis of Gender Inequality and Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries
Gender and Food: From Production to Consumption and After
ISBN: 978-1-78635-054-1, eISBN: 978-1-78635-053-4
Publication date: 22 August 2016
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research assumes that economic development is the key to increasing the food supply and alleviating child malnutrition. However, economic development alone does not promise that income is distributed fairly, nor does it guarantee that other human needs will be fulfilled. What has been missing from cross-national research is an analysis of how gender inequality shapes women’s abilities to effectively maintain food security. The current study contributes to this literature by exploring the multidimensional effects of women’s empowerment on child stunting and wasting.
Methodology/approach
Pooling data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and the World Bank, the analysis estimates a series of multi-level models that examine the country-level influences on malnutrition, while also accounting for household and maternal characteristics that affect food security at the individual level.
Findings
Results suggest that improvements in women’s education, control over reproduction, representation in national politics, and life expectancy correspond to improvements in child malnutrition. Notably, the effects of gender inequality are comparable to or larger than those of economic development. The multi-level modeling technique illustrates how social forces that are larger than the individual shape the chances of experiencing food insecurity.
Research limitations
Cross-national data are limited in scope and cannot prove causality. Further research is also needed to better understand the process by which women wield advances in rights and empowerment to affect food security.
Social implications
If policymakers want to facilitate food security in poor countries, they should not disregard the potential of policies that will promote more equitable rights for women.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
The author is very grateful to David Brady for detailed and constructive comments. The author also wishes to thank Linda George, S. Philip Morgan, Linda Burton, Kim Blankenship, and Kathleen Fallon, as well as audiences at the Duke Department of Sociology and the Stony Brook Department of Sociology, for helpful suggestions. A previous version of this chapter was presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association in Atlanta, Georgia.
Citation
Burroway, R. (2016), "Empowering Women, Strengthening Children: A Multi-Level Analysis of Gender Inequality and Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries", Gender and Food: From Production to Consumption and After (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 117-142. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-212620160000022016
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited