Women eat more rice and banana: the influence of gender and migration on staple food choice in East Africa

Bechoff, A., Forsythe, L., Njau, M., Martin, A., Audifas, G., Abass, A. & Tomlins, K. (2020). Women eat more rice and banana: the influence of gender and migration on staple food choice in East Africa. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 1-19.

An original approach was used to examine how staple food choice differs by gender and migration: this consisted of a quantitative survey (six locations with urban consumers from various economic classes (n = 123)), a qualitative in-depth interview with a subset of those consumers (n = 18), and focus group discussions (n = 13). Men and women had similar results in terms of their preferred staple food choice attributes; yet women indicated consuming more rice and banana, and men, more maize and cassava (Chi-squared test; p < .05). Migration status and life stage (formative or adult years) also influenced the type and diversity of staple crops reported.