The sex and gender dimensions of hunger in peace and conflict: a review

Sex and gender profoundly shape exposure to, experiences of, and impacts from both violent conflict and food crises alike. While both phenomena are deeply gendered in themselves, our understanding of their intersections – specifically, how sex and gender influence food insecurity in conflict – remains limited. This paper presents an overview of current scholarship and available evidence on the sex and gender dimensions of hunger in conflict to synthesise the state of the art in this field. As this paper shows, there are relatively few studies on the topic, revealing a relative gender-blindness in studies of conflict-driven food insecurity overall compared to other areas of gender and conflict research. Furthermore, notwithstanding disciplinary differences, we note significant concentrations in the literature, seemingly shaped by access to data and cohorts primarily in historical European contexts, with implications for the relevance of existing scholarship to contemporary food crises. Relatedly, existing research tends to privilege biological sex over more sociological considerations of gender, and within this, is largely concerned with nutrition and food security outcomes among women. While we note some of the physiological factors – including unique nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women – that inform this focus, we also identify socially constructed gender roles – such as the association of female household members’ with wider household members’ nutrition – that appear to shape this emphasis. The corollary of these trends is a series of notable gaps that may further limit the applicability of existing research findings in contemporary food crises. We conclude with reflections on how future research on the conflict-hunger nexus would benefit from incorporating a gender lens more explicitly, and from further considering different gendered experiences, distinct dimensions of food security, and diverse types of insecurity to expand and deepen understanding.