Ecofeminism, Women, and the Squander Cycle in Food Waste in the United Kingdom: Evaluating the Influence of Values and Gender in Food Shopping

Abstract

This paper examines the direct interconnections between gender, class, food security, sustainability and food waste, and value-driven choices. By doing so, we link feminist economics and ecofeminism in the context of grocery shopping in the United Kingdom. This affords us the opportunity to not only interrogate feminist economics relative to women’s position within a particular socio-economic system but also to position women’s decision-making on a day-to-day basis within a larger value system connecting the sustainability debate and environmental protection. Our central assumptions are both that the earth is being violated, and that sustainable living is necessary to avoid environmental catastrophe. In addition, our assumption was that women are more inclined to engage with sustainable shopping than men. To that end, we examined the views and perceptions on sustainable shopping in the UK, by using yellow sticker shopping as a case study. Data were collected using a bought Smart Survey sample in a UK-wide population in an approximately 20-minute online questionnaire. A data set of 792 complete responses was included in the data analysis. We collected an expected sample from across the UK segmented for gender (women 51%, men 49%) and region. Overall, these data demonstrate that men and women do see grocery economy differently. The findings suggest that values are the most important predictors of the ways in which women evaluate yellow-sticker food shopping. However, the data also reveals that socio-economics also significantly influences how women evaluate yellow-sticker food shopping. Finally, views on corporate social responsibility and environmentally friendly shopping influence attitudes towards yellow sticker shopping, and women who are more inclined to support CSR initiatives and environmentally friendly shopping are also more inclined to purchase yellow sticker food

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