The first article on my website is written by Rebecca dos Santos, she wrote an article on the effect of climate change on women worldwide. Read her article below!
Gender and the environment: the impact of climate change on women worldwide
In 2019 I travelled to Nepal, the so-called roof of the world and home to the world’s tallest mountains. Most of my time there was spent doing what most people do: trekking in the Himalayas and admiring the daily rituals of people around me. During the countless hours spent walking on the trail, I was often overtaken by women carrying large baskets filled with wood or branches. I watched these women walk for hours, carrying firewood and supplies through the rough terrain of the Himalayas. While the men often make money as trekking guides and porters for tourists, women would cover those same distances daily, carrying wood up to their houses to use as fuel. They would also be in charge of preparing food, looking after the family and managing livestock. Climate change however, has made all these tasks harder. Delayed rainfall, changing weather patterns and unstable agricultural conditions are changing the lives of Nepali women. We are all familiar with videos of melting icecaps in the Arctic, starving polar bears, and bushfires raging through the Australian forests. But we often overlook the less obvious consequences and don’t see the human faces affected by these events. In Nepal, I was struck by the remarkable strength these women showed during increasingly hard times, overcoming hardship and setbacks. The effects of climate change are slowly becoming more visible and it has become evident that they disproportionately affect half of the population, ranging from domestic violence to the loss of livelihoods; women are paying a higher price.
Gender plays a vital role in the extent to which the effects of climate change in daily lives are experienced. It influences how decisions are made and by whom, and how existing inequalities and gender roles are maintained, or challenged and changed. As Susan Buckingham describes in her book ‘Gender and Environment’, universally, women are more impacted by environmental degradation because of their role in society, often placed in the poorest and most vulnerable positions. Globally, women have less socioeconomic power than men, own less land and have limited access to financial resources. These gender inequalities can be intensified as environmental conditions worsen.
The link between gender inequality and the impact of climate change might not seem obvious right away but is deeply rooted in societal structures. When discussing gender, it is important to mention that gender is a social construct, and refers to the roles of men and women to each other, and to the general perception of gender to society as it has typically been characterised and developed. In western countries, the fight for feminism often focuses on equal pay, sexual autonomy, and equal opportunities. In developing countries, the fight for gender equality has a different face and can have different meanings varying for class, race, culture, religion and socioeconomic status. By applying the western view of feminism to those with different backgrounds and cultures, we create a biased level playing field and fail to acknowledge the different needs of women on a global scale. When we don’t recognise the difference between the focus points of feminism in the western world and the fight for gender equality in other parts of the world, we miss out on many important perspectives needed to tackle this crisis in unity. Instead, we should aim to understand the needs of women on a global scale while respecting cultural differences and not attempt to change those. It is important to comprehend the different faces of feminism to make sense of the link between gender inequality and the corresponding effects of climate change.
The most prominent effects of climate change are currently experienced in rural and less developed areas. In the western world, there is often a certain distance between people and their sources of food, water, and energy. In poorer areas, people are more directly dependent on the natural resources around them, and climate impact is felt more harshly. A report of the UN finds that a shocking 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. This imbalance is thought to stem from the prevailing gender-based division of labour, which often entails women have a relatively higher dependence on local natural resources and are charged with the responsibility of caregiving roles in society. Specifically, they are confronted with the disappearance of water sources, inability to feed livestock and cattle, and increased food insecurity. For many, this results in forced relocation. Through migration gender inequalities increase further as women are forced to leave the few resources and built networks and communities, leaving them in a worse socioeconomic position. This effect is further reinforced by gender-based disparities in rights to own or inherit land, assets, and (financial) resources, posing a challenge in long-term recovery and adaptation. Globally, women own less than 20% of the world’s land. In developing nations, this number is as low as 10%.
An additional result of forced migration is found in the physical and sexual exploitation of women. The UN Women states that: “women and girls living in poverty are more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, including trafficking. And those who experience domestic or intimate partner violence have fewer options to leave violent relationships, due to their lack of income and resources”. Taken together, this results in leaving already vulnerable women with even fewer resources and opportunities, and in the process of displacement exposing them to higher chances of sexual exploitation and domestic violence. Interestingly, these are effects of climate change and natural disasters that are not only found in developing areas but display a similar pattern in the western world. After the 2019 bushfires in Australia, accounts of sexual violence rose, as was also seen in New Zealand’s flooding in 2004, during which domestic violence agencies experienced a tripled workload. A similar pattern is currently visible in China, where many are quarantined in their homes due to the Coronavirus. Here too, reports of domestic violence have tripled.
For most of history, women globally were expected to manage the household, and were systematically kept away from engaging in politics, finance, and the economy. Hence, women were left with fewer positions of power, and have taken on jobs which are perceived as low-skilled, leaving them with fewer skills to monetise, and lower chances to survive harsh climate impacts. In many societies, women are still repressed when it comes to their right to education and are often left at home to help their elders cook, clean, or work. The UN finds that “in 80 per cent of households with water shortages, women and girls do the majority of the collection”. This is a problem as this leaves them with little time for education or other forms of development as is evident from lower literacy rates and school enrolment. In turn, this leads them to have a lesser influence in policies combatting climate change, and water and resource management, therefore perpetuating systemic inequalities.
To go up against the increasingly threatening effects of climate change, we have to gain a collective understanding of what climate change means to the lives of women around the globe, and how feminism can be used to empower those on the front lines. Gender needs to be incorporated into research and policies, to gain a more in-depth understanding of the additional challenges women face in an age of environmental insecurity. As has been the shared purpose of feminist groups for years now, we need more women in positions of power willing to fight existing systems and challenge long-held beliefs, especially in the climate movement. There is no more time for patience and endless conversations. With mass migration and rising numbers of domestic abuse already a reality in many regions we urgently need to push for policy changes and persistence, and put women at the forefront of their communities.