Climate Change : There’s more than what meets the eye.
A gendered perspective: Does it even make sense?
As per usual dissertations and mainstream academic standards, climate change has always been perceived to have economic, social, and environmental challenges only. Not long back, climate change was explored as a factor that could exacerbate gender inequality. Hence at the first drop of a hint, a gendered understanding of climate change might not look very pronounced. But it isn't so abstract after all. As awareness about gender issues and concerns has grown, and civil society and international organizations working on gender issues have joined forces, there is an increasing amount of evidence on the human and gender impacts of environmental degradation and natural disasters on climate-sensitive sectors such as food security, agriculture, water, energy, and forestry, as well as the broader implications of climate change for social sectors such as health and education (Otzelberger 2011). Women can also be perceived as bearing an unjustified brunt of the impacts of climate change despite leaving a smaller carbon footprint (owing to varied consumption and transport patterns) than men. To delve deeper, we must understand the dynamics of a non-natural correlation between gender inequity and climate change.
Why is it pressing on humanity after all?
As rural social constructs dictate, the household men migrate to urban areas leaving their native villages and agricultural land behind. In the face of ever-increasing poverty and inflation, hunting for better income avenues for survival is prerogative. This leads to the disproportionate feminization of agriculture in rural areas. While we might think that this social phenomenon generates positive economic externalities for women, the reality is quite contradictory. Female farm workers who toil day and night in the absence of their male counterparts have a synonymous standing as agricultural laborers. Such a dynamic is preposterous in various setups of understanding- firstly, women who fill in as farm workers are required to work double-double shifts, i.e., women shoulder household responsibilities as unpaid domestic laborers and also work as underpaid agricultural laborers who have little or no control over the output they produce. As uncertain as the gamble of agriculture in India, climate change has heightened the game's stakes altogether. On average, women-run farms produce 20 to 30 percent less than farms run by men. According to the FAO, the reasons for this "crop gap" have nothing to do with an aptitude for farming and everything to do with gender-specific obstacles. Frequent droughts, floods, and famines due to global warming will only make agriculture far less lucrative for women than men. It follows from the reasoning:
Women have absolutely no rights to ownership of land and possess no decision-making powers in a household dominated by in-laws
There's negligible government intervention in directing funds toward credit facilities and green financing prospects for women.
Women possess staggering access to marketplaces to sell agricultural produce.
Gender-based Skewness in distribution and access to necessary resources (like soil, irrigation, and seeds) are already declining.
In an era where the primary sector's productivity is declining due to a lack of innovation, climate change has further disturbed the odds of benefit to women laborers. Moreover, resources like firewood and common water sources are becoming scarce by the day resulting in an undue burden of walking long distances and bearing long waiting periods on women for daily requirements. Thus, trying to bifurcate time between a low-paying source of employment and taxing household chores and care work significantly impacts their physical, mental, and emotional welfare, among many other things. Former results in heavy time poverty for women and affect their physical, mental, and emotional welfare, among many other things.
With ever-shooting extreme weather events (EWEs) and adverse climatic conditions, the incidence of disasters like droughts, famines, floods, etc., has continued to swell and so has the phenomenon of migration and displacements of entire communities. This leaves women at a severe disadvantage due to their physical, social, and economic vulnerabilities. The fates of pregnant women who are forcefully displaced are particularly endangered as they lack pre and post-natal care. Even among the cohort of other displaced women and girls, it is seemingly difficult for girls to continue with their education ahead. Women are hence, rendered with negligible awareness, resilience, and capacity to mitigate and cope with the consequences of a disaster.
Further, climate change is believed to unleash a plethora of water and air-borne diseases and viruses that are detrimental to human health and immunity. An increased risk to health conditions of children and the elderly are expected to push caregiving and nursing requirements by women and hence, another source of time-tax inflation. Climate change has also unleashed the terror of rising food insecurity leading to unprecedented marginalization of female nourishment in households due to patriarchal norms.
Moreover, unwillingly, climate change has massive implications for the social sector of education and employment. For instance, families that depend on agriculture, especially in rural areas, receive a blow to incomes due to shifting weather patterns and hence downsize on girl child's education (forceful drop-outs) to save living costs which hamper their luck at seeking employment in the formal job market.
Moving on, we must not be caught off guard when we learn about the intrinsic link between climate change and varied forms of abuse, including but not limited to sexual assault, domestic violence, forced prostitution, and human trafficking. According to research undertaken by IUCN, events of climate distress culminate in competition over scarce and dwindling resources as an attempt to dictate superior control over them. As a growing practice, 'sex-for-fish' in parts of Africa points to inhumane levels of human rights violation where fisherwomen are compelled to engage in sexual relations for trade in fish. Such draconian instincts only aim at oppressing powerful women's voices and hint at society's double standards only to restore supremacy over the shared endowment of riches.
Policy Suggestions:
Investments in research and data collection: The existing body of data on links between gender and climate change, although substantial, is still not sufficient to paint a complete picture of multidimensional reasons- economic, social, political, and cultural that embitter differences. Resources should be dedicated to data collection that can aggregate shreds of evidence for wiser policy decisions.
Decision-making power: As for greater gender inclusivity, it is undeniably important to install more women into decision-making roles that can impact policies relating to climate change on a macro level. At the UNFCCC COP 16 in 2010, women accounted for as few as 30 percent of all delegation parties and between 12 and 15 percent of all heads of delegations to the UNFCCC. Although the total number of female delegates has been slowly rising, women "s leadership in climate change has remained stagnant.
Renewable sources of energy: Countries should focus on fresh investments in achieving renewable energy targets to abate the energy crisis ripening due to climate change. A lowering burden of energy poverty can reduce the burden of collecting firewood on women and leave them with more time to themselves.
Green financing for women: Overbearing underproductivity in agriculture has nonchalantly sidelined any form of support for female agricultural laborers with respect to access to credit and microfinance. Inclusive financial institutions and policies can go a long way in correcting gender inequity in agriculture.
Conclusion:
"Environmental degradation now affects our lives in ways that are becoming impossible to ignore, from food to jobs to security." Dr. Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Acting Director General. Hence, socio-political calling is necessary to herald a gendered understanding of climate issues by tackling core discrepancies in gender power relations. As a democratic society, we must function in gender-aware ways that promote justice and rights through broad-based social measures.
Written by Rachita Priyadarshini | Proofread by Yasmin Uzykanova
