Roots for the Future The Landscape and Way Forward on Gender and Climate Change (original) (raw)
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Gender and Urban Climate Policy. A guidebook for policy-makers, advisors and civil society groups
Cities are increasingly recognised as essential actors of climate change policy. Over the past 20 years, local governments around the world have developed a range of climate change policies. In low- and middle-income countries, most cities have prioritised adaptation to the noticeable impacts of climate change. In recent years, some cities have also started to include mitigation actions by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Today, numerous projects and programmes are underway to support these cities in their endeavours to tackle the impacts of climate change. In particular, international agencies and city networks offer methodologies to assist city governments with systematic action plans. In light of prevailing power relations and differences in access to and control over resources, such as land, credit and capital, women and men often have different vulnerabilities and capacities to respond to climate change. These gender differentials as well as the diverse impacts of policies on ...
2017
Gender Inequality and Vulnerability to the Impacts of Climate Change One of the main factors of gender inequality is the gender division of labour. A disproportionate share of unpaid care work and other unpaid labour falls on women. Time-use studies show that, in all countries, women spend considerably more time in unpaid work than do men. In rural India, for example, women's unpaid work amounts to more than 36 hours and their paid work some nine hours a week, while men spend 41 hours for paid work and only three-and-a-half hours 9 9
While climate change mitigation has been on the agenda of spatial planning practitioners for over two decades, adaptation has only become influential in spatial planning practice in recent years. This trend is evident not only at the municipal levelbut also at the regional and national levels. The revised planning and building law from 2011 states that municipalities must consider climate change. In parallel, a body of research focusing on the relationship between gender and concern for environmental and climate change and arguing that women are more concerned and proactive with respect to environmental issues has emerged. However, this research has been criticized for being essentialist and for stigmatizing women and men. The long-term aim of the present dissertation is to contribute to knowledge on how a gender perspective on municipal spatial planning can contribute to efficient and well-informed climate change response, as well as on how a gender perspective, as an analytical framework, can be developed to analyze, on the one hand, spatial planning related to climate change and, on the other, spatial planning more generally. One of the main contributions of my dissertation is to demonstrate that, by including a gender perspective in municipal climate change response, aspects that may be important for achieving efficient and well-informed spatial planning related to climate change response that are not typically prioritized can be afforded prominent places on the agenda. In this dissertation, I refer to these aspects as feminine values and perspectives—or attributes. I also contribute to the development of an analytical framework that can be used by policy makers and scientists to assess how a gender perspective is and can be integrated within municipal spatial planning processes related to climate change response, as well as spatial planning more generally. Furthermore, in addition to the development of efficient and well-informed responses, a dimension of gender equality must be considered. My dissertation contributes to the understanding that planners who adopt a gender perspective must consider the general level of gender equality in a country. Although the primary objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the development of efficient and well-informed policy, issues of equality and democracy cannot be overlooked. As I argue in my dissertation, participatory approaches to spatial planning are imperative for municipal efforts related to climate change. Nonetheless, participatory approaches require spatial planners to ensure that democracy and equality, on the one hand, and efficient and well-informed policy delivery, on the other, do not conflict.
Highlights Men and women differ in interests, mechanisms, roles, and strategies for dealing with climate change impacts Men and women have different perceptions of space due to their productive and reproductive roles, power relations, and to historical and environmental contexts that shape the local 'theory of place' Participatory tools can be used to explore the gender-specific objectives and goals within the locally perceived socio-cultural landscapes We feature two methods (role-playing games and agent-based models) using case studies that demonstrate the spatial perception differences between genders In this chapter, we share examples of how to perceive the 'landscape' through coupling socio-cultural and ecological systems pertinent in livelihood resilience building
Gender, Nature and the City (How can a gender argument affect urban policy and design)
Human Geography vol7, #3, 2014
Gender, Nature and the City Abstract An ecological and eco-feminist critique may promote an innovative environmentalist urban policy. A new relation between humanity and nature implies a different aesthetic and architecture of the city. In the past, in control of the public sphere, men built their cities according to their attitudes and values. Traditional (masculine) behavior produced an efficiency based in dominating a resilient nature. This approach is no longer viable given the environmental crisis. Women are the privileged subjects of radical change, assuming a leadership role in the environmentalist movement and proposing cities envisaged according to a new way of thinking and feeling that accords with a reconsidered relationship between humanity and nature. Keywords: Urban Geography, Radical Urbanism, Environmentalism, Eco-feminism, City Architecture Género, Naturaleza y Ciudad Resumen La crítica ecológica y eco-feminista podría promover una política urbana medioambiental innovadora. Una nueva relación entre la humanidad y la naturaleza implicaría una estética y una arquitectura de la ciudad distintas. En el pasado, teniendo el control de la esfera pública, los hombres construyeron sus ciudades de acuerdo a sus actitudes y valores. La conducta tradicional (masculina) produjo una eficiencia basada en la dominación de la naturaleza renovable. Dada la crisis medioambiental, esto ya no es posible. Asumiendo un rol de liderazgo en el movimiento medioambiental y proponiendo ciudades pensadas en función de un nuevo modo de pensar y sentir, que se ajuste a una nueva relación entre la humanidad y la naturaleza, las mujeres son el actor privilegiado del cambio radical. Palabras clave: Geografía Urbana, Urbanismo Radical, Ambientalismo, Eco-feminismo, Arquitectura de la Ciudad
Gender and urban climate change policy
Routledge eBooks, 2017
Gender Inequality and Vulnerability to the Impacts of Climate Change One of the main factors of gender inequality is the gender division of labour. A disproportionate share of unpaid care work and other unpaid labour falls on women. Time-use studies show that, in all countries, women spend considerably more time in unpaid work than do men. In rural India, for example, women's unpaid work amounts to more than 36 hours and their paid work some nine hours a week, while men spend 41 hours for paid work and only three-and-a-half hours 9 9
Gendering Climate Change: Geographical Insights
2014
Although climate change is expected to increase vulnerabilities, marginalization, and sufferings of many in the Global South, impacts will be unevenly felt across social strata. Intersectionalities of social difference, especially along gender and class lines, differentiate the ways in which impacts of climate change are experienced and responded to. Feminist political ecology and feminist geography insights can explain how different groups of people understand, respond to, and cope with variability and uncertainties in nuanced and critical ways, thereby elucidating the gendered implications of climate change. With a regional focus on South Asia, the article underscores the key issues that can be applied geographically elsewhere. Gendered implications of climate change in South Asia are particularly poignant as patriarchal norms, inequities, and inequalities often place women and men in differentiated positions in their abilities to respond to and cope with dramatic changes in socioecological relations but also foreground the complex ways in which social power relations operate in communal responses to adaptation strategies. This is particularly evident in water-related productive and reproductive tasks in agrarian societies that constitute the majority of South Asia. As climate change is expected to exacerbate both ecological degradation (e.g., water shortages) and water-related natural hazards (e.g., floods, cyclones), thereby transforming gender-water geographies, it becomes imperative to undertake careful multiscalar and critical analyses to better inform policymaking. This article elucidates the complex ways that climate change will affect gender and social relations, thereby highlighting the ways that existing policy narratives and adaptation programs might be better informed by geographical insights. To this end, the article encourages feminist and critical geographers to more forcefully and fruitfully engage with global debates on climate change.
Editorial - Gender and Climate Change
Gender & Development, 2002
Overview In the face of extreme weather events, desertification, and a rise in sea levels, governments and communities around the world increasingly recognise that the need to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change is urgent. The global agenda and negotiations focus on what governments, corporations, and institutions can do in the search for large-scale technological solutions. Yet women, men, and local communities all have roles, responsibilities, and interests that hold the potential either to harm or to benefit their environment.