ABSTRACT
During the last twenty-five years the high visibility of food and its apparent abundance has created a cleavage in people's perceptions of it. More than ever and for more people than ever before, food is no longer felt to be simply the adequate response to physical hunger. The process of feeding sets up a whole tableau of feelings that affect not just people's relationship with food, but their experience of closeness and intimacy. Women's influence is felt in every area of family life and psychological development, but nowhere as poignantly as in the arena of food. Food is a statement of her love, her power and her giving in the family. It is only in the last decade or so that not cooking and preparing food for the family has begun to be an option, and many women still feel uneasy about relinquishing that aspect of their social role.
