Gender Equality and Food Systems - a Knowledge Review
The Knowledge Review on Gender Equality and Food Systems gathers findings from recent literature on how gender equality, women’s empowerment and food systems transformation interact.
Globally, women are disproportionately affected by food insecurity, with climate shocks exacerbating their vulnerability. Women's limited access to land tenure, resources, and opportunities undermines their economic status, resilience, and leadership in food systems. The rights to gender equality and adequate food are deeply intertwined, and addressing gender inequalities is crucial to advance food and nutrition security and the wellbeing of all.
The Knowledge Review highlights key challenges in policies and programming for the integration of gender equality in food systems. It finds that efforts to integrate gender empowerment in food systems have mainly been developed locally, rather than at the institutional level in food systems, and that the conceptualisation of food systems reminds largely gender blind. Considering women and men as homogenous group and neglecting other social inequalities is a further frequent shortcoming.
Evidence confirms that women’s empowerment can improve nutrition and food security, but complementary measures (such as social protection, childcare, legal frameworks, infrastructures) are needed to ensure positive trade-offs between gender equality and other food systems outcomes. A gender-transformative approach is needed to challenge power dynamics and systemic barriers, and to advance gender equality and women's empowerment across the food system as an explicit goal in all interventions.
Further research and sex-disaggregated data are required to fully understand the connections between food systems transformation, gender equality, and women's empowerment, and to inform effective policy responses that promote more equitable and sustainable food systems.
THOMAS Anne-Claire;
CALLENIUS Caroline;
REGA Carlo;
VERSTRAETEN Roosmarijn;
REMBOLD Felix;
2025-03-03
European Commission
JRC140233
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