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Background Ethiopia signed both for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) previously and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) currently to improve food security through gender equality and empowerment of women by positioning them as household leader. However, there is no concrete evidence about the impact of being of the female gender for household head on the prevalence of food insecurity at the national level, the authors’ intention being to fill this gap. Methods Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol (PRISMA-P) guideline was followed. All major databases such as PubMed/MEDLINE, WHOLIS, Cochrane Library, Embase, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, Web of science, and reference lists were used to identify published articles, whereas shelves, author contact, Google, and Google Scholar were also searched to identify unpublished studies. Joanna Briggs Institute Meta-Analysis of Statistical Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-MAStARI) was used for critical appraisal of studies. Meta-analysis was conducted using the STATA software version 14. The random effect model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence of food insecurity at 95% confidence level, while subgroup analysis and meta-regression were employed to identify the possible source of heterogeneity and the associated factors respectively. Moreover, Begg’s test was used to check publication bias. Results A total of 143 articles were identified, of which 15 studies were included in the final model with a total sample size of 2084 female-headed households. The pooled estimate of food insecurity among female-headed households was 66.11% (95% confidence level (CL) 54.61, 77.60). Female-headed households had 1.94 (95% CL 1.26, 3.01) times the odds of developing food insecurity as compared with male-headed households in Ethiopia. However, considerable heterogeneity across studies was also exhibited (I2 = 92.5%, p value < 0.001). Conclusion This review found that severity of food insecurity among female-headed households in Ethiopia was a more pronounced issue as compared with the general national estimate of food insecurity. Food insecurity among them was two-fold increased as compared with their men counterparts. So that, the government of Ethiopia needs to outlook how cultural and social restriction of women’s involvement in every aspect of activity affects their level of household food security. Beyond this, previous success and current gap of food insecurity among female-headed households should be explored in future research to run in accordance with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specially with goals 2 and 5.

There is evidence in the literature that there exist gender-related differences in household energy choices. However, most of these studies have assumed the homogenous slope hypothesis a priori, which could affect the results if a formal test rejects the homogenous slope hypothesis. The Exogenous Switching Treatment Effect (ESTER) is used to ascertain the gender effects in household energy choice in Ghana. In comparison with the pooled regression method, ESTER relaxes the assumption of the same effect of covariates on male-headed households (MHHs) and female-headed households (FHHs). The results indicate that if FHHs characteristics were similar to those of MHHs, their probability of choosing cleaner energy would be higher. Our results suggest that supporting the heads in FHHs to have access to more economic opportunities as males tend to will potentially lead to positive effects on their probability of choosing clean energy. Our results give support to policies that strongly favor female education without disadvantaging male education.

Two stylized facts about poverty in Africa motivate this article: femaleheaded households tend to be poorer, and poverty has been falling in the aggregate since the 1990s. These facts raise two questions. First, how have female-headed households fared? Second, what role have they played in Africa's impressive recent aggregate growth and poverty reduction? Using data covering the entire region, we reexamine the current prevalence and characteristics of female-headed households and ask whether their prevalence has been rising, what factors have been associated with such changes since the mid-1990s, and whether poverty has fallen equiproportionately for male- and female-headed households. Lower female headship is associated with higher gross domestic product. However, other subtle transformations occurring across Africa—changes in marriage behavior, family formation, health, and education—are positively related to female headship, resulting in a growing share of female-headed households. This shift has been happening alongside declining aggregate poverty incidence. However, rather than being left behind, femaleheaded households have generally seen faster poverty reduction. As a whole, this group has contributed substantially to the reduction in poverty despite their smaller share in the population.

Background Childhood anaemia is still a major public health concern. Although the prevalence of anaemia among children under age five is reducing in Ghana, the severity level is still worsening. This study sought to examine and compare household factors affecting the anaemia status of children under age five living in male- and female-headed households in Ghana . Methods The study used a weighted sample of 5,799 household heads from the 2019 Ghana Malaria Indicator Survey (GMIS). A binary logistic regression analysis was used to examine the effect of sex of household heads and other household factors on the anaemia status of children under the age of five in male- and female-headed households in Ghana. All analyses were conducted at the 95% confidence level. Results The results showed that a higher proportion (83.0%) of children under age five are not anaemic in households in Ghana. However, the probability of a child being anaemic is higher in male-headed households (aOR = 1.28; C.I:1.08–1.51), in the poorest (aOR = 2.41; CI: 1.59–3.65), poorer (aOR = 2.04; C.I:1.41–2.94) and middle (aOR = 1.78; C.I:1.29–2.46) household wealth category. Higher likelihood of anaemia was found among children in households that used charcoal (aOR = 1.51; C.I:1.15–1.99) and fuelwood (aOR = 1.44; C.I:1.02–2.02) for cooking. Similarly, there is a high probability of childhood anaemia in households with 5–10 members (aOR = 4.49; C.I: 3.78–5.34), 11 or more members (aOR = 7.21; C.I: 4.60–11.31) and household residing in northern part of Ghana (aOR = 1.40; C.I:1.07–1.83). The lower odds of being anaemic were recorded among children whose household heads were aged 40 years and older, household using other cooking fuels (aOR = 0.49; C.I: 0.21–0.78) and household with no bednets (aOR = 0.57; C.I: 0.44–0.74). Conclusions The GMIS data suggest that anaemia and its severity are higher among children living in MHH than among those living in FHH. The results indicate that poverty, a higher number of household members, relatively younger male household heads and the type of cooking fuel used were factors accounting for the differences in childhood anaemia in MHH and FHH. Equal attention should be given to MHH and FHH in terms of programmes and interventions aimed towards preventing and reducing childhood anaemia in Ghana.

This study examines housing affordability among female-headed households, focusing on the differences between those living in rural areas versus those in urban areas. Existing literature on female householders lacks a contemporary understanding of the demographic, housing, and financial characteristics and the differences among rural and urban householders. Using multinomial logistic regression and 2013 American Housing Survey data for the analyses, this study identified statistically significant differences regarding housing affordability among rural and urban householders. The results of this research provide insight concerning the attributes of female householders, particularly those that live in rural areas, and their relationship to housing affordability. Our findings reveal housing cost burden as one of the prevailing struggles for female householders in the rural and urban areas of the US. Rural female householders spent a smaller percentage of their income on housing on average compared to urban householders, yet about half of all rural female householders were cost burdened. Female householders with children experienced more housing hardship and worse economic conditions than those without children. Our research points to the need for policy interventions that mitigate female-headed households’ economic and housing challenges, particularly those in rural areas who may have difficulty accessing government programs and assistance.

This is a comparative study of children’s resource shares in male-headed and female-headed households. To this end we estimate a household collective model using a rotating panel of households from the Jamaican Survey of Living Conditions over a period of 21 years (1990–2010). We find that the gender of the household head is important in determining individual resource shares within the household. Our results also indicate that children receive substantially larger resource shares in female-headed households than in male-headed ones and hence children who live in relatively poor female-headed households are not necessarily worse off. Additionally, the effects of household characteristics on the shares of children are shown to vary considerably based on the gender of the household head.

The recognition of poverty as a multidimensional concept has led to the development of more adequate tools for its identification. By allowing for subgroup and regional decompositions, those instruments are useful to allocate public action where most needed. This paper applies the Alkire and Foster (2011a) Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to study single-mother and biparental families in Nicaragua, modifying its original structure to match more closely with the country’s current structural problems. Using Nicaragua’s last Demographic and Health Survey (DHS 2011/2012), our multidimensional poverty figures contrast with the government’s national poverty line estimates, suggesting that income poverty overestimates the number of poor people. Thus, our MPI can help as a complement for traditional consumption poverty and Basic Needs analysis; even extending the exploration by using other official household surveys. On the other hand, multidimensional poverty analysis found poverty dominance of male-headed families over single-mother and female-headed biparental families, which serves to contradict the notion of women being more vulnerable than men. Within the MPI, the most important contributor was the Living Standards dimension, composed by indicators directly related to housing conditions, and the second most deprived dimension was Education. A strong policy implication that arises from our findings is the reduction of the urban–rural poverty gap. Specifically, our findings exalt the need for governmental policies directed to reduce Nicaragua’s housing and educational deficits as a priority, particularly in rural areas.

Data on 7,632 households from the 1999 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey are used to examine household structure and living conditions in Nigeria. The study finds significant disadvantage in living conditions of single-adult, female- and single-adult, male-headed households relative to two-parent households. Extended households show no significant advantage in living conditions over two-parent households if headed by women but are consistently advantaged if headed by men. Although extended households do not entirely wipe out the disadvantage of female headship on household living conditions, they show a significant mitigating potential. Efforts to understand and alleviate poverty in Nigeria may need to address simultaneously gender imbalances in access to livelihood opportunities and factors that foster nucleation of family structure into single-adult households.

This study examines multidimensional poverty according to householders’ gender and age in South Korea. Using the counting approach, multidimensional poverty was measured on six dimensions: money, health, housing, employment, social protection, and social relations. The results indicate that the monetary dimension does not cover other deprived dimensions. In terms of poverty rate, female-headed households are more deprived on all six dimensions. The headcount ratio and adjusted headcount ratio gradually decrease as the cutoff value of multidimensional poverty increases. The decreasing tendency is more moderate for female-headed households than for male-headed households, indicating that female-headed households face more weighted poverty dimensions. Our study found that the poverty dimension demonstrates different patterns according to householders’ age. For the older group, health is the second most contributing factor, and for the younger group housing and social protection contributed more to multidimensional poverty than for the older group.

This article presents the results of a study that investigated the level of assets and debts that female-headed households have in comparison to those of married-couple households and other types of households. The empirical results revealed that the amounts of net worth of married-couple households and male-headed households were significantly larger than that of female-headed households. We discuss policy implications stemming from the findings of the study and recommend that the United States seriously consider creative policy approaches aimed at empowering low-income households such as employment-related supportive policies, microenterprise programs, and Individual Development Accounts programs.