An additional burden in women s life is the excessive time devoted to cooking and related activities. Because of the low availability of processed food, Azerbaijani woman has to cook every day. Most products are bought in markets. There is also a traditional preference for home cooked meals which further increases women s workload at home. There is no widely spread system of relatively cheap, good quality and quickly served cafes or restaurants where the average family could occasionally have meals.
Restaurants are expensive.
The difficult conditions of the transition period also affect marriage and divorce patterns. The number of marriages is declining significantly in the whole region, as well as in Azerbaijan, mostly because of the lower incomes of the population. However, the divorce rate has also dropped, particularly in comparison with the western republics of the FSU where the tendency is the opposite. Strong community ties help families to survive during periods of crisis in society. This general fall in nutritional standards, together with environ-mental factors and stress, negatively affects women s health.