This article reviews and synthesizes existing nutritional studies that provide gender-disaggregated data from sub-Saharan Africa. The analytic focus is on female nutritional status across the life-span. However, it was found that available data are biased towards preschool children and women of reproductive age. As in other economically disadvantaged parts of the world, the two most prevalent nutritional deficiencies among females in sub-Saharan Africa are iron-deficiency anaemia and protein-energy malnutrition. In comparison with other regions of the world, sub-Saharan African females seem to be nutritionally better off than females in South Asia, but as malnourished as, or more malnourished than, females elsewhere. Indirect indicators of nutritional status, such as birthweight and maternal mortality, suggest that the nutritional situation of women in Western Africa is poorer than that of women in Eastern and Southern Africa. In comparison with males in sub-Saharan Africa, however, no consistent pattern of female nutritional disadvantage was found.

This article reviews existing data concerning the causes and consequences of female malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. As in most parts of the world, the primary cause of female malnutrition is household food insecurity compounded by low household and individual incomes. Gender-specific factors that further undermine women's nutritional status are the severe physiological burden of frequent child-bearing and the continuous long hours of energy-intensive work. Negative consequences of malnutrition among females include high rates of mortality and morbidity, impaired learning, low birthweights, and reduced energy for discretionary activities. We question the conclusion of other studies that African women have developed special “adaptive mechanisms” to compensate for nutritional deprivation, and recommend that further research investigate the hidden individual and societal costs of malnutrition among women.