Page "Food security" Paragraph 65

While varying by region, women face social and economic barriers to achieving personal and household food security.

A comprehension of the gendered dimensions of food insecurity, which includes family size, household obligations, access to wage-labor, and the social constrictions on land use, productivity and intake, render individuals more capable of making educated decisions regarding their own health and that of their household.

Improvement in food security strategies by individuals and households allows more time and resources to be directed towards improving economic situations, through investments in better means of production, further education, other quality of life measures, which can improve the status of communities.

Macroeconomic factors should also be taken into account, such as the emergence of neo-liberal capitalist policies imposed through the Washington Consensus which include Structural Adjustment Programs, austerity measures, and an emphasis on expanding export-oriented trade at the expense of small-scale producers and rural development.

The Center for Women's Global Leadership reported in 2011 that the expectation that this economic shift would increase the global food supply resulted in the strengthening of powerful transnational companies through heavy subsidization, while overall food security faltered as " developing countries withdrew investment in agriculture and rural development, leading to a decline in their long-term productive capacity and transforming them into net food importers.