‘Cooking is for everyone?’: Exploring the complexity of gendered dynamics in a cookstove intervention study in rural Malawi

Abstract

Background Household air pollution (HAP) resulting from cooking on open fires has been linked to considerable ill-health in women and girls, including chronic respiratory diseases, and has been identified as a contributor to climate change. It has been suggested that cleaner burning cookstoves can mitigate these risks, and that time saved through speedier cooking can lead to the economic empowerment of women. Despite these and other potential advantages of cookstoves, sustained use is difficult to achieve. Objective We used qualitative methods (focus groups, interviews, observation) and the participatory methodology Photovoice in order to inform a deeper understanding of gendered social relationships within the Cooking and Pneumonia Study (CAPS) in rural Malawi. Methods Over five CAPS villages, forty women and ten men were recruited for Photovoice activities, including image collection, village-level focus group discussion and interviews. Data were also collected from interviews with village-based community representatives. Results This study facilitated a rich exploration of context-specific gendered household roles and power relations which found that there was space for contestation in seemingly entrenched and ‘traditional’ household responsibilities. The results suggest that the introduction of cookstoves through CAPS provided a focus for this contestation. It was evident that men and children also cooked, and that cooking played a central role in the gendered socialisation of children. However, there were no indications that time saved resulted in the empowerment of women. Conclusion Our findings suggest that dominant narratives of the links between gender and cookstoves are often reductive and fail to reflect the complexity of gender power relations. The use of qualitative methods incorporating Photovoice helped to facilitate an alternative ‘bottom-up’ view of cookstove use which demonstrated that while cookstoves may disrupt gendered relationships in target communities, positive impacts for women and girls cannot be assumed.

Women’s Perceptions and Attitudes to Household Air Pollution Exposure and Capability to Change Cooking Behaviours in Urban Rwanda

“…There is a pressing need to develop and implement HAP interventions, with the ultimate long-term goal of cleaner fuel transition (e.g., Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), electricity, solar) in low-and middle-income contexts. However, cleaner fuel transition is often not complete or follows the "energy ladder" model with transient fuel switching and stove or fuel stacking [10] due to multiple barriers to clean fuel provision including access, financial costs and traditional cooking behaviours and cultural considerations [11][12][13][14]. During the transition period, structural or behavioural interventions which reduce HAP exposure may be introduced, such as improved cookstoves (ICS), outdoor cooking, removing children from the cooking area and improved ventilation; although it is recognised, changes in pollutant concentrations will not meet World Health Organisation indoor air quality guidelines (WHO-IAQ) [15].…”

Leaving No One Behind: A Photovoice Case Study on Vulnerability and Wellbeing of Children Heading Households in Two Informal Settlements in Nairobi

“…This method has the potential to stimulate social engagement and the co-creation of sustainable solutions to complex problems (Budig et al 2018;Fairey 2018;Nykiforuk et al 2011). Photovoice has been applied to a wide range of health-related topics, (Catalani and Minkler 2010) such as community-based palliative care (Bates et al 2018); child care in urban informal settlements (Hughes et al 2020); maternal, child and women's (Wang 1999;Wang and Pies 2004); water, sanitation, hygiene (Bisung et al 2015); and clean cooking practices and interventions (Ardrey et al 2021;Ronzi et al 2019). In this study, photovoice enabled us to gain an in-depth understanding of the daily lived experiences of the participants regarding marginalisation, wellbeing, and agency (Chloe et al 2020;Lindhout et al 2021).…”

Assessing the Demand for Improved Cook Stoves among Low Income Households in Kenya: Case of Baringo and West Pokot Counties

“…Cooking with wood-based fuel is problematic not only because of the unsustainable harvesting and degradation of forests but also incomplete combustion of the wood fuel by the traditional cook stoves results in high levels of household air pollution which accounts for approximately 3.7 million annual deaths (Zhang et al, 2022). Furthermore, traditional cook stoves as reported by Ardrey et al (2021), use solid fuels inefficiently, hence a burden to the collectors (often women and children) translating to an economic cost to the economy and education. Ardrey et al (2021) that Kenya is among the top twenty most deficient countries in clean cooking energy access (Avila et al, 2017;Hsu et al, 2021).…”

“…Furthermore, traditional cook stoves as reported by Ardrey et al (2021), use solid fuels inefficiently, hence a burden to the collectors (often women and children) translating to an economic cost to the economy and education. Ardrey et al (2021) that Kenya is among the top twenty most deficient countries in clean cooking energy access (Avila et al, 2017;Hsu et al, 2021).…”

“…Improved cookstoves as explained by Jan (2012), are efficient stoves that easy to light, emits less smoke, saves fuel, are safe during cooking, and cooks faster due to improved combustion of fuel used. ICSs have the ability to burn fuels efficiently resulting in lower air pollutant emissions, saving fuels, hence freeing up women and children, especially girls from unnecessarily longer cooking durations in addition to the health benefits associated with clean cooking (Shen et al, 2015;Ardrey et al, 2021;Mekonnen et al, 2022).…”