even though agricultural yields are increasing, famine and drought continue to haunt the Third World and the chief victims of hunger are women. Poverty, patriarchy and exclusion from political power have taken their toll on longevity among women. The shortened lives of rural women in countries like India illustrate the deadly combination of extreme patriarchal social structures and poverty in South Asia.

Almost all studies in this regard indicate that women not only earn less at work, they also contribute more of their income to family consumption and take a smaller share of it