Gender and Nutrition: Assessment Nexus
Photo: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu.
In this webinar, we will discuss how the relationship between women’s empowerment and women’s and children’s diet and nutrition outcomes have been conceptualized and studied.
Generalizations about the relationships between “women’s empowerment” and “nutrition” abound, with little understanding of what is meant by either of these general categories. The frameworks that are used to illustrate these relationships may be too general to be useful in understanding the relationship between a complex construct like women’s empowerment, and behavioral (e.g., diet diversity) and biological (e.g., stunting) outcomes that have both shared and different causes.
We will review the different women’s empowerment and diet and nutrition tools that have been used when assessing the relationship between the two, and assess how the different combinations of empowerment and diet/nutrition have been studied. Within five broad categories of empowerment, we will provide summaries of the findings from the included studies. Considering the results of this review, we highlight gaps in how these relationships are conceptualized and measured, and consider ways to deepen understanding of these relationships.
Speakers:
- Dr. Deanna Olney - Senior Research Fellow and a theme co-leader for Nutrition-Sensitive Programs in IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division.
- Sara Shapleigh – Program Coordinator, IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division.