Women's Food Matters: Stirring the Pot

Description

Women have always been inextricably linked to food, especially in its production and preparation. This link, which applies cross-culturally, has seldom been fully acknowledged or celebrated.  The role of women in this is usually taken for granted and therefore often rendered unimportant or invisible. This book presents a wide-ranging, interdiscplinary and comprehensive feminist analysis of women’s central role in many aspects of the world’s food systems and cultures. This central role is examined through a range of lenses, namely cross-cultural, intergenerational, and socially diverse.   Acknowledgements Contents 1 Introduction References 2 A Feminist History of Cooking: From Hunter-Gatherer to Peasant Cooking An Alternative History of the Development of Cooking: Man the Hunter vs Woman the Gatherer ‘Writers Have Hardly Noticed’: Women’s Invisibility in Writings About Food History Cooking and the ‘Mating’ Hypothesis ‘Crude and Indigestible’: The Denigration of Women’s Rural Cooking ‘Inspired Improvisation’: The Rich Tradition of Female Domestic Cooking References 3 Culinary Hierarchy: From Peasant Cooking to ‘Haute Cuisine’ Cuisine as an Expression of Class ‘National Cuisines’ vs Regional Cuisine Cooking and the Public/Private Split ‘How Can I Make It My Own?’: Male Individualism vs Female Collectivism/Community Molecular Gastronomy as an Expression of the Masculinist Approach to Cooking Men Are no Longer Satisfied with ‘Simply’ Being Chefs References 4 The Sexual Politics of Domestic Cooking Food and Male Control Men’s Involvement in Domestic Cooking Cookbooks for Men The Rise of the ‘Manly’ Cook The Rise of the Television (Male) Celebrity Chef and the Creation of the Masculine Domestic Cook The Male Takeover of the Domestic Kitchen Foodie Culture References 5 Cultural Memory and Female Intergenerational Culinary Culture ‘A Thread of Continuous Knowledge’: The Intergenerational Transmission of Female Culinary and Food Knowledge ‘More Precious Than Jewels’: Cookbooks in the Lives of Women ‘Ties to Homelands Left or Lost’: Food and Migrant Identity ‘Dishes that Remind Them of Home’: Refugees and Culinary Cultural Memory ‘Relying on Ready-to-Eat Meals’: The Loss of Culinary Skills ‘A Form of Diversion and Escapism’: Cooking as a ‘Spectator Sport’ and the Decline of Home Cooking ‘The Epitome of Patriarchal Oppression’: Feminism and Cooking References 6 A History of the Industrialisation of Food and Its Impact on Women The Enclosure of the Commons and the Decline of British Food Culture The Impact of the Enclosures on Rural Women The Scientific Revolution and the Development of Industrial Agriculture as a By-Product of War Adulteration of Food Industrialised Animal Production References 7 Threats and Solutions to Biodiversity, Cultural Culinary Diversity and Food Sovereignty The Neoliberal Food Regime Threats to Women’s Role as Custodians of Biodiversity The Threat of Climate Change to Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity Global ‘Supermarketisation’ The Homogenisation of Food Cultures The Nutrition Transition, Nutritionism and Biofortification Land Grabbing Food Security, Food Sovereignty and Agroecology References 8 Women Feed the World: Biodiversity and Culinary Diversity/Food Security and Food Sovereignty The Importance of Women’s Homegardens ‘Women Have Always Gathered Wild Plants’: Women as Food-Gatherers ‘What Do You Mean by Weeds?’: Culinary Applications of Wild Plants ‘Agriculture Begins with Seeds and Ends on the Plate’: Women as Seed Custodians Post-harvest Processing and Preservation Women’s Work with Animals References 9 Conclusion References Index