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Accepted manuscript

Food insecurity and employment income: considerations regarding gender inequalities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2025

Aléxia Vieira de Abreu Rodrigues Open the ORCID record for Aléxia Vieira de Abreu Rodrigues [Opens in a new window] ,
Eloah Costa Sant’Anna Ribeiro Open the ORCID record for Eloah Costa Sant’Anna Ribeiro [Opens in a new window]  and
Rosana Salles-Costa Open the ORCID record for Rosana Salles-Costa [Opens in a new window]
Aléxia Vieira de Abreu Rodrigues*
Affiliation:
Postgraduate program in Nutrition, Josue de Castro Nutrition Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Eloah Costa Sant’Anna Ribeiro
Affiliation:
Postgraduate program in Nutrition, Josue de Castro Nutrition Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Rosana Salles-Costa
Affiliation:
Postgraduate program in Nutrition, Josue de Castro Nutrition Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Department of Social Nutrition, Josue de Castro Nutrition Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
*
Corresponding author: Aléxia Vieira de Abreu Rodrigues, Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373 – Bloco J, 2ºandar. 21941-902, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Email: alexiaabreurodrigues@gmail.com, +55 21 39380390.
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Abstract

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Objective:

To investigate the associations among income from work, the gender of the reference person, family and food insecurity (FI).

Design:

This quantitative study used nationally representative data from the 2018 Brazilian Family Budget Survey.

Setting:

The analyses estimated levels of food security and insecurity measured by the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale according to labor income determined by the minimum wage per capita (MWPC) and the sex of the reference person (female/male). The logistic regression model measured the interaction between work income and gender in association with household FI.

Participants:

Brazilian families living in permanent households with at least one resident earning income from employment (n=48,625).

Results:

Households headed by women and with labor income ≤¼ MWPC had the highest percentage of moderate/severe FI (29.7%). In these families and households with lower levels of employment income headed by men, the highest probabilities of moderate/severe FI were observed, at 10.8 and 9.6, respectively, compared with families with higher levels of employment income headed by men.

Conclusions:

Lower employment income contributes to FI in families, especially those that are headed by women. The socialization of care work and the reduction in paid labor hours contribute to greater access to the labor market for women and a lower likelihood of FI.

Keywords

EmploymentGender EquityFamily Food Insecurity

Information

Type
Research Paper
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Accepted manuscript , pp. 1 - 23
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society