Food from a gender perspective: tastes, concerns and organisation of domestic work

Abstract

This article analyses food practices from a gender perspective. It belongs to the //anonymised// project. The approach is based on the Sociology of Food, which has found notable inequalities between men and women in three areas: in relation to food tastes, in terms of concern for health and the body and, finally, in terms of the division of food work. These issues have traditionally been associated with gendered habitus or eating style. The aim is to test whether, in the context of social change marked by globalisation and homogenisation, the classic gender differentiation persists. For this purpose, a quantitative and descriptive analysis is used with data from a survey carried out in Spain among the population aged 18 and over.

The results indicate that gender continues to be an explanatory variable for eating behaviour, tastes and concerns. Good nutrition is associated in women with healthy, balanced and fresh food, and in men the activity of eating is associated to a greater extent with pleasure. Women's concern for health is associated with a greater propensity to diet, as well as to consume fortified products and supplements. Finally, despite their increased participation in the labour market, women continue to be largely responsible for domestic work in relation to food, maintaining, despite social transformations, a second shift in the household (Hochschild, 2021).