Feeding work is complex, laborious and highly gendered in some Roma families compared to the majority population. Specifically, Roma families living in poverty are frequently large and live in substandard housing that makes feeding work more complicated. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in five different Roma settlements throughout Croatia, this paper explores how Roma households that experience severe material deprivation feed their families and their everyday experiences of food in/security and hunger. This study relies on self-reported food in/security as a better measure of directly capturing how the Roma feel about their immediate situation.Likewise, it attempts to draw attention to Roma expressions of deprivation, uncertainty, or concern over access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food. Based on in-depth interviews rather than just observations, this analysis provides a different perspective on meaning of feeding in the light of unprecedented financial insecurity that is experienced by many Roma families and the ensuing inequalities are analysed. Some of the ways that feeding Roma families relates to gender and the (in)equalities that surface are also discussed. Findings show that a lack of access to healthy and nutritious food aggravates health, social, educational, economic and gender inequalities that squarely places Roma at the bottom rung of the social ladder and generates social suffering.

Literature on how Roma families cope with precarious living conditions and social exclusion remains very limited. Out of all the national minorities and ethnic groups in Croatia, the Roma undoubtedly have the most difficult social position characterised by a high degree of poverty and social exclusion. Based on recent fieldwork, the aim of this article is to explore the coping strategies different Roma populations in Croatia employ to meet their everyday needs. Acknowledging the different forms of interconnected, interdependent and context-specific capital that together constitute advantage and disadvantage in society (Bourdieu 1986), this study analyses Roma’s access to economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital. Along with discrimination and racism, Roma’s limited access to different forms of capital explicates the necessity of household-based, work-based, kin-based and aid-based strategies among some families living in poverty, especially in light of stricter social welfare policy measures that have been recently introduced.

Unequal access to formal employment, decision-making power and social prestige can lead to vulnerabilities and social exclusion especially in rural areas. Feminist researchers and advocates for women assert that the preservation of agriculture, family farming and diverse rural culture in particular depend on the empowerment and participation of women (Hoff 1992, p. 79). In this paper, I attempt to evaluate rural/farm women's position and the extent of their vulnerability and social exclusion in an area of Slavonia in the eastern part of Croatia. Specifically, I use interview and fieldwork data to identify and elaborate their roles, participation in decision-making, and the obstacles/ constraints that rural women face in these rural communities to evaluate the extent of their contribution to rural development. Further, it is my intention to explore if rural women represent an untapped resource in rural spaces that would contribute to rural development and raise the quality of life in these areas.

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Worldwide research has shown that women tend to devote a disproportionate amount of time to domestic labour that can be a barrier to gender equality and women's empowerment. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which women's role in unpaid domestic labour has an effect on their well-being and whether this presents a barrier to their empowerment or their ability 'to do and be' what they value. The study is based on ethnographic research in six rural villages located at the very north-eastern part of Croatia in Slavonia. This article draws on rural women's (and men's) accounts of their meanings and experiences in unpaid domestic labour. Pertaining to this labour, it also reviews their contribution as well as their lack of access to well-being in the family and wider community. Findings show that women's engagement in domestic labour has both positive and negative effects on their wellbeing, as well as that of their families and the wider community.