Week 12: Climate Change and Gender by Princessdoo
Climate change increases gender inequality, reduces women’s ability to be financially independent, and has an overall negative impact on the social and political rights of women, especially in economies that are heavily based on agriculture.
Climate change increases gender inequality, reduces women’s ability to be financially independent and has an overall negative impact on the social and politician rights of women, especially in economies that are heavily based on agriculture.
Gender inequality means that women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. This is due to gender roles, particularly on the developing world, which means that women are often dependent on the natural environment for sustenance and income further limiting women’s already constrained access to physical, social, political, and fiscal resources, climate change often burdens women more than men and can magnify existing gender inequality.
Women and men are not helpless victims of climate change, but use various methods and strategies to adopt to climate change. It is increasingly recognized that empowering women, children and other marginalized groups is beneficial not only as a policy in itself, but also as a means of strengthening the effectiveness of climate change measures. Often, strategies that are adopted are related to the social norms concerning what is acceptable for men and women.
80% of people displaced by climate change are women
Revamp Rave Network held the tenth session of the Second Virtual cohort Programme training on climate change themed “Climate Change and Gender” on the 23rd of July 2022. The session was taught Jean-Betrand Mhandu- Africa Regional Director EarthDay.org and Princess Doo Agadu — Gender Mainstreaming and Environment.
Princess Doo Agadu explained that the earth’s climate is always changing it can be cooler or warmer sometimes and studies shows that earth’s climate is getting warmer the earth’s temperature as gone up to about 1oF and all this little changes can cause deep effects which we are already experiencing such as ocean’s rise, increase in raining season, increase in sea levels, flood and droughts and although all this effects affects everyone it is not gender neutral while some people experience this effect more than others like rural communities compared to developed areas due to lack of resourceful help.
She described gender as a socially constructed definition of women and men for example behavior, expectations, role and actions. It is also the social attribute and the opportunities associated with being male and female.
There is a link between environmental degradation and it’s impacts on women, girls and women as they do not experience climate change the same way as boys and men. This is because women are more environmental friendly as a result of their catering for their communities and home. However, when disaster occurs men can easily pack up and leave while women stay behind to save their children and homes.
Climate change and gender have significant social impact and magnify existing insecurity such as disparity between men and women in their vulnerability and in their ability to cope in numerous ways. Unlike men, women cook food for their family and this impacts causes longer distance to farmlands and water sources which affects the environment. It also leads to poverty in other to cope with the impact. The end results of this stress and stressors leads to early marriages, mental illness, abuse, child labor in search for a better life or an alternative source to build resilience.
In coping with climate change, some communities have the ability and resources to build resilience compared to some other communities but this doesn’t take out the fact that women are environmental impoverished.
In most communities women are not environmental knowledgeable and despite the vulnerabilities experienced by women and girls they are not able to voice their specific needs due to a lack of platform to do so. And this goes for the untapped knowledge about the resources the environment provides them.
Women living in the global south have equal responsibility of securing food, water, energy and other vital resources as well as caring for the young and elderly which places them at greater risk of experiencing extreme climate impact for example girls and women often suffer most during heat waves and drought and also physical and mental health implications.
It is important for men and women to work together for our community to thrive. They must understand that climate change affects women more than men.
