SMOKE IN THE KITCHEN: WHY CLEAN COOKING IS A FEMININE ISSUE
by Sustyvibes Lagos, Nigeria When we think about kitchens, we often envision warmth, family gatherings, and shared meals. However, for countless women and girls in low- and middle-income countries, these spaces are fraught with danger. The daily act of preparing food can expose us to hazardous smoke from burning traditional fuels like wood and charcoal, leading to serious health risks such as respiratory illnesses and burns. To make matters worse, women often spend hours each day not only cooking but also gathering fuel. This relentless cycle underscores systemic neglect that acknowledges women’s roles primarily as caretakers rather than addressing their vulnerability to harmful cooking practices. While it is seen as primarily an environmental or public health challenge, clean cooking fundamentally intersects with gender equality. The burden should not fall disproportionately on women when simple solutions exist to transform their cooking environments into safer spaces for nourishment without sacrificing their well-being or time. How Traditional Cooking Fuels Affect Women Across many low and middle income countries, women and children are most affected by cooking with smoky fuels. Wood, charcoal, dung, and crop waste are still the main way of cooking for nearly 2.3 billion people around the world. That’s according to the 2023 joint report Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report, published by the World Health Organization, the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, and other global partners working on clean energy access. Household air pollution from these fuels contributes to millions of deaths annually and the majority of these deaths are among women and children. In Nigeria alone, over 120 million people are exposed to harmful smoke from open fires and traditional stoves every day. This estimate comes from a 2020 study by Sarah Jewitt, Paul Atagher, and Michael Clifford, which highlights the widespread health risks tied to cooking with firewood and other polluting fuels across the country. Women, often with children in tow, inhale large volumes of smoke for hours every day, seven times a week, and all year round. The health implications include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cataracts, low birth weight, and early mortality. Young Nigerians hear things like “Pregnant women are not allowed to go near fire,” or “Too much exposure to firewood heat can prevent a woman from giving birth.” Yet, despite all these beliefs and well documented harm, clean cooking has never received the same policy attention or financing as other infrastructure priorities. And when policies are created, implementation and enforcement efforts are next to zero on the government part. While NGOs and aid groups have the power to organise outreaches and campaigns, they generally lack the absolutely necessary data, access, and resource capacity to bring about real change. Toxic Cooking Fuels Steal Time, Money and The Future The use of firewood and other biomass fuels is not only a health hazard but also a time trap. According to the World Health Organization, women in sub-Saharan Africa often spend between 1.5 to 4 hours every day just collecting firewood. This is time that could be spent in school, at work, or at rest. In urban slums, women are often forced to choose between purchasing fuel and buying food. Cooking becomes a cycle of economic constraint that reinforces gendered poverty. The issue is made worse by the fact that many women must rely on stove stacking, using multiple types of stoves and fuels to cope with shortages, costs, or cooking needs. In one Nigerian home, you’re likely to find at least three types of cookstoves and the chances of all three using toxic cooking fuels is high. Lack of access to clean cooking limits women’s mobility, productivity, and autonomy. It curtails their ability to take on income generating activities, engage with impactful passion projects, or further their career. It forces them to rely on traditional roles not because of choice but because of energy scarcity. Women are kept in the kitchen by policy failures as much as by social norms. Furthermore, the psychological toll of time poverty is seriously overlooked. The mental burden of juggling caregiving, cooking, and fuel collection with no structural support is invisible in most policy debates. Yet this daily pressure diminishes well being, limits rest, and contributes to long term stress related health issues. Clean Cooking and Reproductive Justice There’s a link between energy access and women’s health. Exposure to biomass smoke during pregnancy has been linked to stillbirth, low birth weight, and developmental delays. In households where cooking is done indoors with poor ventilation, pregnant women face risks that complicate childbirth. All that could be avoided with clean cooking technologies. Reproductive justice requires that all women have the ability to make safe and healthy choices for themselves and their families. This includes the right to cook without jeopardizing their own health. It includes the right to raise children in environments not compromised by state neglect or energy inequality. Clean cooking, then, is not a marginal issue, but part of the vast campaign for gender equity in health, safety, and dignity. When health outcomes are shaped by the absence of clean energy, reproductive rights become entangled with energy justice. Without clean cooking, millions of women face avoidable risks during the most vulnerable periods of their lives. From Tokenism to Structural Reform Interventions in clean cooking often focus narrowly on distributing improved stoves, many of which do not meet user needs. Some stoves are incompatible with local cooking practices, such as cooking for large households or preparing specific traditional meals. Others require fuel types that are expensive or unreliable. Women are not passive victims. They are often the first to innovate, adapt, and maintain cooking systems. Yet they are routinely excluded from energy planning, financing mechanisms, and policy development. In many cases, concerns about safety, such as fear of gas explosions or previous experiences with kerosene related injuries, lead women to reject clean options altogether, even
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