The COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, associated public health measures, and people’s responses to these measures are projected to have caused job losses among women, who tend to be in more precarious jobs, a decline in women’s empowerment, and reduced diet diversity among women. Using a November 2020 telephone survey to re-interview adult women respondents of a November 2019 in-person survey, the authors tested the way and the extent to which women’s employment outside their homes, women’s decision making power with regard to income use and food purchases, and women’s diet diversity in rural Patuakhali and Faridpur districts changed over the year partly marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. They also examined the relationship between change in women’s empowerment and change in women’s outside employment, and the relationship between change in women’s diet diversity and change in women’s empowerment.
The discussion paper, "Changes in Women's Empowerment in the Household, Women's Diet Diversity, and Their Relationship Against the Background of COVID-19 in Southern Bangladesh," was published as part of the International Food Policy Research Institute's discussion paper series in April 2021.
Read the corresponding blog post, "Exploring COVID-19's Impact on Women in Southern Bangladesh," published on the Food Systems Idea Exchange and the Gender Nutrition Idea Exchange in May 2021.
In this report, researchers from the A4NH's Platforms for Healthier Diets project aim to identify the most important topics in
New discussion paper explores unexpected findings on women’s empowerment, women’s employment outside their homes, and women’s diet diversity in Bangladesh in the months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Snapshot of a national food system, guided by the Compendium Of Indicators For Food System Assessment
