ABSTRACT
The importance of female control over income or “purse-power” in influencing the lives of children, especially female children has also begun to be documented cross-culturally as far as nutrition and health are concerned and at least for Latin America when it comes to education. The most spectacular findings on the impact of female- vs. male-controlled income on child nutrition come from Engle’s study of a random sample of 294 children and their families from two Guatemalan industrial towns south of the capital. She found that the higher the percent of the total family income the mother earned, the higher the nutritional status of the children, on all nutrition measures. The additional children help provide their mothers with water and firewood, child and animal care, and many other productive tasks. More children mean that a woman farmer can earn a living, but intensify the problem for the next generation.
