Helping women improve nutrition in the developing world
1990
McGuire, Judith S. | Popkin, Barry M.
The purpose of this paper is to link together in a new and creative way the exisitng knowledge about women's market work, reproductive roles, and household production in order to highlight opportunities for helping women improve nutrition. The analysis is based on the hypothesis that women are now engaged in a "zero sum game." This means that in order to take advantage of new technology, market opportunities or even social services to improve nutrition, requires an initial investment of women's time, energy, or income, which may not be available, ironically, without sacrificing their own nutrition or that of their families. Consequently, women's time constraints may partially explain poor participation rates in many development projects. By reviewing the literature (including project documents) in nutrition, agriculture, child development, women in development, health, and economics, the authors point out the linkages and competition among women's life roles. Their conclusions highlight the need to give women access to the necessary productive, intellectual and nutritional resources to solve their own problems. The authors offer a number of suggestions for development planners about using an analysis of women's roles to address nutrition problems in developing countries.
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