How Women are disproportionately affected by Climate Change
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How Women are disproportionately affected by Climate Change
Environmental sociology suggests that climate change deepens gender inequality due to male dominance in society. Women are the primary caregivers in households and stewards of natural resources in communities. Thus, women’s duties and roles increase their vulnerability to extreme weather events, especially in rural areas and the Global South. Liberation for women also involves addressing the ecological crisis (Barbosa, 2015). The loss of biodiversity disproportionately affects women’s material welfare, livelihoods, social relations, resiliency, and limits access to security. Ecological feminists claim that climate change adversely affects women than men due to social, cultural, economic, and political disparities due to society-environment dynamics.
Environmental degradation contributes to the oppression of women in patriarchal societies. Biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, deforestation, rising sea levels, droughts, heatwaves, and biodiversity loss disproportionately affect women. Likewise, women significantly contribute to food production due to the unpredictability and scarcity of traditional food sources. Thus, extreme weather events lead to loss of income as well as food.
Indeed, women and girls are more involved in domestic chores that rely on natural resources, such as water, biomass, and land. Thus, women face greater burdens from the impact of climate change, especially in developing nations. Environmental dependence leads to depletion of natural resources, which adversely affects vulnerable groups, such as women and girls (Hawley, 1986). Also, the engagement in domestic responsibilities for many hours in a day reduces the time for engaging in politics, earn income, or acquire skills. Thus, most women live below the poverty line due to gender inequality in education and employment opportunities. Moreover, domestic responsibilities increase the risk of injuries for carrying heavy loads and expose women to the risk of sexual harassment and assault.
Additionally, climate change has contributed to unsustainable agricultural production patterns, which affect women more than men due to systemic inequality. Many women in the Global South rely on agricultural outputs to feed their families. Thus, climate change has reduced food production due to frequent droughts, storms, and floods. Limited mobility also exposes women to the adverse impacts of extreme weather events. Women and children are more vulnerable to the effects of natural calamities than men due to their limited mobility. Besides, environmental feminists argue that women are also excluded from climate action movements (Nightingale et al., 2019). In other words, women have less contribution to promoting environmental sustainability. Moreover, women have less access to human rights, making women and girls more vulnerable to extreme weather events. Indeed, droughts cause women to walk for long distances searching for water and food for their families. The patriarchal society does not allow women to own land because social norms dictate that men should be married rather than inherit their fathers’ property. For instance, only one-quarter of women own cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast due to cultural barriers in property ownership (Fairtrade Foundation, 2019).
Women face economic and political barriers combating climate change around the globe. Many women and girls in the Global South depend on natural resources to sustain livelihood (Capek, 2015). Thus, gender inequality increases women’s vulnerability to climate change than men. The lack of coping capacity among women hinders their contribution to climate change actions in patriarchal societies. Furthermore, environmental justice advocates for shared responsibilities in order to address inequality and protect vulnerable populations.
References
Barbosa, L. C. (2015). Theories in environmental sociology. In Gould, K. A., & Lewis, T. L. (Eds.), Twenty lessons in environmental sociology (pp. 28-48). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Capek. (2015). Social construction of nature. Gould, K. A., & Lewis, T. L. (Eds.), Twenty lessons in environmental sociology (pp. 13-27). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
FairtradeFoundation (Director). (2019). Meet the Women Cocoa Farmers Facing Adversity in the Ivory Coast [Motion Picture]. Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP5NR3BbdKE
Hawley, A. (1986). Introduction. In Human ecology: A theoretical essay (pp. 1-9). University of Chicago.
Nightingale, J., Böhler, T., Campbell, B., & Karisson, L. (2019). Sustainability in a globalizing world. New York : Routlegde .