These women require improved access to education and other resources that tend to raise income levels. Nutrition security depends not only on sufficient food at the household level but also on factors such as health and child care and access to clean water and sanitation. Ensuring the nutrition security of the household, through the combination of both food and other resources, is almost the exclusive domain of women. Nearly all nonfood inputs into nutrition require time investments, and in general these investments are made by women. These caring behaviors are time-intensive.
Women constantly face difficult choices in their time allocation decisions.
However, increasing female employment outside the home may increase women's bargaining power within the household. Development of technology that relieves women's time burdens in agricultural production and household maintenance without sacrificing their ability to earn independent incomes is therefore critical. Protecting female nutritional status is important in providing a head start for children's nutritional status. But women's nutritional status may be threatened when women act as shock absorbers for the household through the liquidation of their own nutritional status in lean seasons. Conclusions and Recommendations To allow women to fulfill their potential in generating food security, national governments and international organizations must take policy steps in three broad areas.