Climate justice requires gender justice
There cannot be climate justice without gender justice, IHE Delft MSc student Fawzia Tarannum, an experienced water professional with a PhD in Community Participation in Water Quality Management, argues in this International Women’s Day blog.
“If governments and civil societies are serious about climate justice, they must improve gender justice. The lack of gender justice means that women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including more frequent and severe natural disasters.
As long as women face structural barriers to land, technology, financial services, education and skills, they are at higher risk during disasters. Women and girls are 14 times more likely to die in a disaster than men, according to statistics. In tsunamis, hurricanes, flash floods and earthquakes, with some exceptions, more women than men die.
Women, elderly and children often spend more time inside their homes, making them more vulnerable to some disasters. Traditional gender roles related to nurturing and deference make women more exposed to disasters as compared to men. In post-disaster situations, women and girls are also at a higher risk of violence, abuse, psychological stress and malnutrition.
My country, India, is among the top 10 countries most at risk due to climate change. The country’s 7500km of coastline is already experiencing intense and frequent cyclones. Sea-level rise and coastal erosion severely impact lives and livelihoods of the people at the bottom of the social and economic pyramid. For example, those most affected by a 2020 cyclone included pregnant and breastfeeding women, female-headed households as well as people with disabilities, adolescent girls and boys, sex workers and transgender people, according to a gender analysis.
In the north of India, the Himalayan region is grappling with glacier melting, flash floods, and landslides, among others. For rural women, it is a double whammy. As water sources dry up, they travel longer distances to fetch water. With many men abandoning farming to migrate to cities in search of jobs, the women are left behind doing farming work in addition to their chores. But as they don’t own the land they farm, they have little access to resources and government services.
“If governments and civil societies are serious about climate justice, they must improve gender justice."
These are just a few examples that illustrate how a lack of gender justice lead to women being more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men. For women to have the same chances to survive climate change as men, gender justice is needed. Governments and civil society, therefore, must lay the groundwork for gender justice by taking the following steps:
- Invest in gender disaggregated data: Most policies that claim to be gender neutral are gender blind: they fail to address the unique concerns and the differentiated impact of climate change on men and women. Gender-disaggregated data must be collected and analyssed prior to policy formulation and development of adaptation and mitigation plans.
- Gender-responsive climate finance : Most climate funds focus on investments in reducing carbon emissions. But women, traditionally being custodians of resources, have the potential to catalyze transformational change required for climate change adaptation. Not involving them in climate finance decisions leads to suboptimal and inequitable outcomes.
- Increase participation of women in STEM programmes: Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programmes should invest to create an environment that welcomes women, who now account only for 28% of the STEM workforce.
- Promote gender balance in expert committees on climate change adaptation and mitigation: Two-thirds of climate change decision-making roles are held by men. This must change. Women contribute significantly toward climate action, and they should have equal representation in climate voices.
- Diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring: Diversity, equity and inclusion are key to achieving gender justice and realising the motto of the SDGs: leave no one behind. By proactively including these factors in hiring, managers contribute to the goal.
These actions will contribute to gender justice, a concept that should be viewed beyond the binaries and must consider every person’s need irrespective of the identity, age, caste, class, colour, race or ethnicity. Gender justice is an essential component of climate justice – the latter cannot be achieved without the former.
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