Invisible Women

Invisible Women Catherine Bertini Abstract: Women are ubiquitous and critical to the nutritional well-being of their families, yet they are often invisible to policy-makers, public of½cials, community leaders, and researchers. Effecting signi½cant decreases in the number of hungry poor people, as well as the improvement of nutritional and economic outcomes, requires policy in addition to operational and research priorities that are directed at the needs of women and girls. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/144/4/24/1830649/daed_a_00351.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 Food is grown to be consumed: by livestock, ½sh, even vehicles. But of course, the primary consumer of food is humankind. And the primary providers of food as meals–in virtually all of the developing world and much of the developed world–are wom - en. As I remarked in my plenary address to the Fourth World Conference on Women in September 1995 in Beijing, China: CATHERINE BERTINI, a Fellow of Women eat last. In almost every society in the world, the American Academy since 2003, women gather the food, prepare the food, serve the is Professor of Public Administra- food. Yet most of the time, women eat last. A woman tion and International Affairs at the feeds her husband, then her children, and ½nally–with Maxwell School of Citizenship and whatever is left–she feeds herself. Even pregnant Public Affairs at Syracuse Universi- women and breast feeding women often eat last when, ty. She is the 2003 World Food Prize of all times, they should eat ½rst.1 Laureate. She formerly served as Assistant Secretary, Food and Con- Should you be tempted to assume such practices sumer Services at the U.S. Depart- are no longer the norm, consider the ½ndings out- ment of Agriculture and Executive lined in the Institute for Developmental Studies’ Director of the United Nations bridge World Food Programme. She is a 2014 report Gender and Food Security: Towards Distinguished Fellow, The Chicago Gender-Just Food and Nutrition Security: “Even during Council on Global Affairs, for whom pregnancy, ‘special care is not always taken to ensure she chaired the task forces that au- women receive enough food.’”2 thored the publications Renewing Twenty years after the Fourth World Conference Ameri can Leadership in the Fight Against on Women, it is not just the household pecking order Global Hunger and Poverty(with Dan for food consumption that is a concern, but also the Glickman, 2009) and Girls Grow: A Vital Force in Rural Economies (2011). invisibility of women when it comes to policy-making She has also written for Foreign Af- at every level: from the household, to the community, fairs, The Washington Times, USA To- to the private sector, to research, to local, regional, day, and The Wall Street Journal. and national governments. © 2015 by Catherine Bertini doi:10.1162/DAED_a_00351 24 Women are the key human ingredient to from these chronic diseases will reach $35 Catherine adequate diets for families. As such, their trillion by 2030.7The report also points out Bertini voices should be sought after, listened to, that adults who were undernourished as and acted upon. children earn 20 percent less in income than those who were not.8 Adequate nutrition depends on a well- Malnutrition is costly in other ways, too: balanced diet. For those who can afford al- 4–9 percent of most countries’ gdp is most no food–the 795 million people who, spent on medical costs related to over- according to the Food and Agriculture Or- weight or obesity.9 ganization (fao) of the United Nations, There are many reasons behind these are chronically undernourished–the strug - trends, including increased consumption 3 of overly processed foods that add sugars gle to obtain any food is a daily challenge. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/144/4/24/1830649/daed_a_00351.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 For the rest of the world, including the very and salts in place of nutrients, overcon- poor, eating the “right” balance of foods is sumption of food generally, and lack of di- key. In fact, the word malnutrition has taken etary variety (most commonly manifested on an expanded meaning. Its use no longer as too few fruits and vegetables and too connotes only those who have too little to much starch). Some of these factors stem eat, but also those who consume too much from poverty. In order to maximize the or lack dietary balance. In other words, an amount of food she has available to feed her obese person is also “malnourished.” family, a poor mother might buy cheaper Obesity is growing in virtually every re- foods that are higher in starch: potatoes, gion in the world. It has fast become a ma- rice, and flour-based breads. In the United jor source of the world’s most widespread States, cheaper foods may also mean large diseases, commonly called noncommuni- bottles of sugary drinks. It seldom means cable diseases (ncds), including high blood more fruits and vegetables. pressure, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, Fruits and vegetables are not only more liver disease, and sleep disorders. ncds are expensive than processed foods, they are now the leading cause of human death in also less readily available to consumers. the world.4 Their perishability causes huge shifts in There are now almost as many people availability and cost in countries where re- worldwide who are obese (600 million) as frigeration technology is minimal. For a few are chronically undernourished (795 mil- weeks, the market is swamped with a cer- lion).5 It won’t be many years until those tain vegetable or fruit, causing the price to numbers intersect; obesity rates are dra- drop; later, availability is scarce and the matically rising while undernourishment price is high. In the United States, the Sup- rates are gradually decreasing, even as the plemental Nutrition Assistance Program global population increases. Some of the (snap; formerly known as food stamps) most dramatic growth in obesity rates is allocation is distributed once monthly for among children under ½ve years of age. For all recipients, leaving smaller stores no rea- instance, between 2000 and 2013, the preva - son to stock perishables past the predict - lence of overweight in children under ½ve in able once-monthly period of major food Southern Africa rose from 1 to 19 percent.6 purchases. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs report Healthy Food for a Healthy World: Back to the pregnant woman: while cul- Leveraging Agriculture and Food to Improve ture and society, not to mention household Global Nutritionpredicts that the decline in priorities, should ensure that she has enough global productivity due to illness and death of the right foods to eat, she still too often 144 (4) Fall 2015 25 Invisible does not. Developed countries like the trition during this period–which comes Women United States are taking action to address from her mother–she will be stunted in this discrepancy: for example, the United some way, and she can never make up the States created the Special Supplemental loss in later years. A person who goes hun- Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, gry for months at age twenty-½ve or ½fty and Children (wic) in 1974, under the Nixon can recoup losses; a one-year-old child administration, to support the nutritional who goes hungry for months cannot. In needs of poor pregnant mothers and their fact, for a child who had been stunted, sig- infants and toddlers through distribution ni½cant weight gain later in life, even later of speci½c foods and nutrition education. in childhood, often results in obesity. The It is commonly considered the most effec- lack of physical and/or intellectual capac- tive national nutrition program. ity caused by a lack of food and nutrition in Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/144/4/24/1830649/daed_a_00351.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 During my term at the United States De- early childhood impacts a person’s eco- partment of Agriculture (usda) in the early nomic well-being for life. And if a stunted 1990s, we created a special food package young woman becomes pregnant while she for breastfeeding mothers in the wic pro- still has an inadequate diet, she will give gram. After all, until then the government birth to a child who, if he survives, will be encouraged women to breastfeed but only stunted himself. Thus, malnutrition per- gave poor women infant formula. unicef’s petuates the cycle of poverty. data on incidence of breastfeeding con - The recent International Food Policy Re- ½rmed that the U.S. rates for low-income search Institute (ifpri) report Women’s Em - women began to increase (although still powerment and Nutrition tells us that nearly not at high enough levels) following im- half (43 percent) of the decreases in chil- plementation of the program. (Clayton dren underweight between 1970 and 1995 Yeutter, then–Secretary of the usda un- have been due to the empowerment of wom - der President George H.W. Bush, recog- en, as measured through improvements in nized the program’s importance; he cut women’s education.12 For example, the the ribbon on the ½rst wic clinic in 1974.) HelenKeller International Program in Bur - The World Health Organization (who) kina Faso found that educating women in has concluded that “Exclusive breastfeeding farming households via women extension –de½ned as the practice of only giving an agents led to increased dietary diversity infant breast milk for the ½rst six months and decreased wasting, anemia, and diar- of life–has the single largest potential im- rhea among the women and their children.

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