A/69/275 mild ways”, failing to address some of the main obstacles women face. Moving towards gender transformative policies will require major additional efforts on the part of States. 6 27. Patriarchal norms often control the distribution of household resources, including food and income. As such, women and girls are often the last to receive food within the family setting. Such blatant discrimination can have a devastating effect on women’s nutrition, which in turn leads to a reduction in le arning potential and productivity and increases reproductive and maternal health risks. As a consequence, children are also severely affected. It is increasingly recognized that malnourished women are more likely to give birth to underweight children, resu lting in stunting and other nutritional disorders. 28. In general, food and nutrition security policies continue to treat women primarily as mothers, focusing on the nutrition of infants and young children or pregnant women, rather than addressing constraints on women’s economic and social participation. Teenage mothers, women without children and women of post reproductive age with specific nutritional needs are generally not considered within those policies, and this must change. 6 29. As farm labourers, vendors and unpaid care workers, women are responsible for food preparation and production in many countries and regions throughout the world and play a vital role in food security and nutrition. However, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by poverty and malnutrition. Women in rural areas are particularly affected, as female-headed households continue to grow, exceeding 30 per cent in some developing countries, with women owning only 2 per cent of agricultural land and with limited access to productive resources. 7 In many low-income countries, women are the backbone of the rural economy and 79 per cent of economically active women in the least developed countries consider agriculture as their primary source of income. Agrarian land re form legislation often discriminates against women by entitling only men over a certain age to land ownership while women’s entitlement only applies in cases where they are household heads. 8 Such discriminatory practices prevent women in many countries from asserting their economic independence and being able to feed themselves and their families. 30. Investing in rural women has been shown to increase productivity significantly and reduce hunger and malnutrition. 8 According to FAO, women are responsible for 50 per cent of world food production, mainly for family consumption. The majority of rural women are “invisible” field workers on family plots. As a result, they have no recognized independent status as farmers and their work is considered as secondary both in the family and in society. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 15 per cent of landholders are women and they account for less than 10 per cent of credit and 7 per cent of extension services. According to estimates, policies that address gender inequalities could, conservatively, increase yields on women’s farms by 2.5 to 4 per __________________ 6 7 8 14-58889 Marcela Villarreal, “The impact of gender inequalities on food security: what policies are needed?” paper presented at a colloquium at the University of Toulouse II -Le Mirail, 22-24 May 2012. FAO, “Women and the right to food, legal and state practice” (2008). Ibid., “The female face of farming”, available from www.fao.org/gender/infographic/en/. 9/18