Women's burden when shortages bite

"Women's work" like fetching food, tending crops, searching for firewood and carrying water is considered "invisible work" according to recent studies. As millions of Southern Africans face smaller larders this year, the region's women face the daunting task of carrying out these duties with dwindling energy reserves and at the same time trying to keep their bodies going. A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) study of women in developing countries noted that malnutrition did not affect all members of a household equally, with men and boys often getting served first and getting more food. "Seasonal shortfall in food availability tends to affect women disproportionately since their already inadequate intake will be curtailed drastically," the report said. "Even when more food is available, it tends to be preferentially allocated to men, thus preventing women from accumulating any reserves. If seasonal shortfall coincides with pregnancy or lactation, the implications for women and infants are particularly harsh." In Africa the traditional division of agricultural labour assigns women specific tasks, but their work is mostly considered "invisible", the report said. These tasks include fetching water and cooking, walking to the fields for planting, weeding and harvesting. They also brew beer for special occasions and carry goods to the market. While technological changes have made crop cultivation easier, the expansion of areas under cultivation sees women walking further to get to the fields or to collect firewood from bordering forests. Social changes have left women taking on extra tasks while men migrate to cities and towns for work. But men are reluctant to take on additional "women's work". While women's productivity determines how much food is available for consumption, it doesn't determine how much they consume, the researchers said. Often, women give the men the nutritious food, while they settle for bulky, low calorie foods themselves. A study of subsistence farming in Tanzania found that women supplied a little more than half the calories consumed by the household, while men contributed just under half. "Observations during meal times showed that men normally received the lion's share of the food. On the rare occasions when meals include meat, men exceptionally become the servers and are responsible for the distribution of meat among family members. As household heads, men are entitled to have the best choice at meals, and more than their fair share when food is short. Furthermore, prestigious foods such as meat and eggs are often consumed by men outside the home, in coffee shops and beer bars, thus draining household resources," the study said. A nutritionist interviewed by IRIN added another dimension: "The culture in most African countries is that the man gets the better share. Women do this partly to protect their marriage - they don't want the man to think he will get better food with another woman so they give him nice food. We all do it a little bit, but when food is scarce and there is a limited amount of meat or chicken it will go to the man first," she said. "Women will spend money they earn on food for the household but men will think, 'I need to taste some meat' and will take money and buy some." In addition, women around the world will often feed their children first and pretend they have already eaten when the family is struggling. But while women in developed countries force malnutrition on themselves to be fashionably thin, for women in developing countries, malnutrition is a disaster bringing with it many ailments, mostly energy-sapping anaemia. World Food Programme nutritionist Francesco Erdelmann said: "Lack of iron is typically seen in women because of their loss of blood. Without enough iron the blood can't carry oxygen and this lowers productivity. You can't see anaemia but people feel tired, they can't be as active as they used to. "It can be a very limiting factor - the best available source of iron is meat but poor people can't afford it." Erdelmann said malnutrition also posed difficulties for pregnant women. "For African women it is business as usual," she noted. "They are not expected to work less or eat more." Erdelmann explained that the unborn child of a malnourished woman depends on its mother's reserves in the womb. "If this is affected it could lead to a low birth weight for the baby. This carries through to adolescence where many women have their first child and the cycle of poor nutrition continues." Erdelmann said that while experiences in extreme emergencies such as Ethiopia and Sudan have shown that malnutrition doesn't prevent a woman from breastfeeding "it is an enormous drain on her reserves". For some women who have lost too much weight, their menstrual cycle may be disrupted or they may stop menstruating altogether. "The body needs certain micronutrients to function. It's not just a matter of being thin, the immune system needs certain nutrients to function and if that is disrupted the body can't fight infectious diseases. "The public notices severe weight loss but the body can already be severely damaged before it even gets to that point," Erdelmann said. Many of the latest aid donations for the Southern African food emergency have targeted women and children. The European Commission recently announced emergency help for Malawi including a special programme for breastfeeding mothers. However, Erdelmann said that the impact of the food shortages and malnutrition on men also needed to be considered. "They can also be hard hit by food shortages, which may affect their specific roles and responsibilities in the household and community," she said.