"Focus on" Series, 2007.

This paper "Right to Food and Gender” is a part of the "Focus on" series, which also entails papers on “Right to Food and Bioenergy”, “Right to Food and HIV/AIDS”, “Right to Food and Indigenous Peoples” and “Right to Food and Access to Natural Resources”.

All over the world, unequal access to power and resources is central to discrimination against women in the community, market, state and even within their own households. Correcting this inequality is vital to realize women’s right to food. Unequal distribution of food leads to increased malnutrition, which can reduce learning potential, increase reproductive and maternal health risks and lower productivity. These factors diminish women’s economic abilities, undermining gender equality and trapping women in a vicious circle of poverty and under-nutrition.

The paper addresses the right to food and gender in regard to Human Rights Law, National Implementation, Health and Education and Property Rights.