Climate Justice, Gender, and Intersectionality
Abstract
Women are generally more vulnerable than men to environmental
disasters and extreme weather events due to four main factors, which are related to
women’s gendered roles in society: women are economically disadvantaged in
comparison to men and are more likely to live in poverty; sexual and reproductive
health and physical demands on their bodies during pregnancy, child-bearing and
rearing, and menopause put them at special risk; their lives tend to be longer and
they spend more time as seniors / widows, with resulting economic and health
implications; and their social options are restricted so that they often fill paid and
unpaid roles related to physical and emotional caring that put them at special risk of
environmental injustice. This means that environmental and climate injustice are
gendered in both rich and poor countries, and this can be manifested in a variety of
ways: housing, transportation, food insecurity, stress, mental illness, disability, heat
exposure, interruptions of electricity and water services, violence against women,
partner and elder violence, toxic exposure, health vulnerability, worker safety,
political voice/agency/leadership, and many others. Gender also intersects with
other categories of vulnerability such as ethnicity, ‘race,’ sexuality, dis/ability, etc.
to heighten climate risk and injustice. The gendered effects of extreme weather
events are often not disaggregated in government statistics and research literature,
and an explicit gender focus, including attention to the access of women and
marginalized people to participation in climate policy setting, has been minimal.
Both at the local level and globally, climate change adaptation and response
initiatives can downplay or suppress democratic, equity-enhancing politics.
disasters and extreme weather events due to four main factors, which are related to
women’s gendered roles in society: women are economically disadvantaged in
comparison to men and are more likely to live in poverty; sexual and reproductive
health and physical demands on their bodies during pregnancy, child-bearing and
rearing, and menopause put them at special risk; their lives tend to be longer and
they spend more time as seniors / widows, with resulting economic and health
implications; and their social options are restricted so that they often fill paid and
unpaid roles related to physical and emotional caring that put them at special risk of
environmental injustice. This means that environmental and climate injustice are
gendered in both rich and poor countries, and this can be manifested in a variety of
ways: housing, transportation, food insecurity, stress, mental illness, disability, heat
exposure, interruptions of electricity and water services, violence against women,
partner and elder violence, toxic exposure, health vulnerability, worker safety,
political voice/agency/leadership, and many others. Gender also intersects with
other categories of vulnerability such as ethnicity, ‘race,’ sexuality, dis/ability, etc.
to heighten climate risk and injustice. The gendered effects of extreme weather
events are often not disaggregated in government statistics and research literature,
and an explicit gender focus, including attention to the access of women and
marginalized people to participation in climate policy setting, has been minimal.
Both at the local level and globally, climate change adaptation and response
initiatives can downplay or suppress democratic, equity-enhancing politics.
Citation
“Climate justice, gender, and intersectionality,” in Tahseen Jafry (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Climate Justice (London / New York: Routledge / Earthscan), pp. 349-358.Collections
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