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When women eat last: Discrimination at home and women’s mental health

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  • Payal Hathi
  • Diane Coffey
  • Amit Thorat
  • Nazar Khalid

Abstract

The 2011 India Human Development Survey found that in about a quarter of Indian households, women are expected to have their meals after men have finished eating. This study investigates whether this form of gender discrimination is associated with worse mental health outcomes for women. Our primary data source is a new, state-representative mobile phone survey of women ages 18–65 in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra in 2018. We measure mental health using questions from the World Health Organization’s Self-Reporting Questionnaire. We find that, for women in these states, eating last is correlated with worse mental health, even after accounting for differences in socioeconomic status. We discuss two possible mechanisms for this relationship: eating last may be associated with worse mental health because it is associated with worse physical health, or eating last may be associated with poor mental health because it is associated with less autonomy, or both.

Suggested Citation

  • Payal Hathi & Diane Coffey & Amit Thorat & Nazar Khalid, 2021. "When women eat last: Discrimination at home and women’s mental health," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0247065
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247065
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    Cited by:

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    2. Harchand Ram & Srinivas Goli & M. Sripriya Reddy & Anu Rammohan, 2024. "Food Insecurity Among Older Adults in India: A Study of Disparities Across the Inter-sectional Axes of Caste, Poverty, and Gender," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 331-351, December.
    3. Roscoe Conan D’Souza & Ignasi Martí, 2022. "Organizations as Spaces for Caring: A Case of an Anti-trafficking Organization in India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 829-842, May.
    4. Bau, Natalie & Khanna, Gaurav & Low, Corinne & Shah, Manisha & Sharmin, Sreyashi & Voena, Alessandra, 2022. "Women’s well-being during a pandemic and its containment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    5. Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan & Alison El Ayadi & Nadia Diamond-Smith, 2024. "The role of community-level men’s and women’s inequitable gender norms on women’s empowerment in India: A multilevel analysis using India’s National Family Health Survey–5," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(12), pages 1-19, December.
    6. Anukriti, S. & Herrera Almanza, Catalina & Hossain, Shahadat & Karra, Mahesh, 2025. "Son Preference and Women’s Mental Health and Well-Being in India," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 360992, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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