Are women hardest hit by the effects of the current food price crisis?
Evidence suggests that women are hit the hardest by the effects of the current food price crisis. They typically spend a higher proportion of their income on food than men, and higher food prices are likely to erode their purchasing power disproportionately. With fewer assets and heavier burdens on their time, women are more vulnerable to shocks and less well positioned to respond to them. They usually enjoy fewer rights and protections under both customary and statutory legal systems than men. Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa women and children tend to consume fewer calories than men, leaving them more vulnerable in terms of their nutrition status. African women and girl children in rural central India are customarily the last members of the household to eat. The lack of employment opportunities or access to resources that would enable them to start up and maintain business enterprises can quickly become desperate constraints in a context of soaring food prices. Among those women who wor
