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Bringing women’s perspective on climate change

12 comments
climate-talk

Rebecka Hagman (in the middle) talking about gender and climate change at Stockholm's Culture Festival. Photo: Helene Mårtenson.

This past week I have fully enjoyed Stockhom’s Culture Festival. Somehow I think that the mere fact of so many people getting together, enjoying free concerts and theatre, dancing and discussing, is an important ingredient in a truly sustainable society. But this year’s festival also had a lot of items specifically about sustainability and climate change on the programme.

For example I heard the feminist climate debator Rebecka Hagman talk about her experiences in the work to bring women’s perspective into the global negotiations about climate change in Copenhagen last year.
As an intern with the Swedish Mission to the UN in New York, she was asked to formulate a proposal for a gender paragraph to be included in the resolution.

So in what sense is climate change an issue that touches gender roles? Well, explained Rebecka Hagman, until now climate change has often been discussed in a technocratic and scientific sense. But it’s also important to see that men and women – as groups – actually have different climate impacts (according to studies men drive more, eat more meat and consume more energy intensive things, while women for example are more likely to use public transport).

Furthermore men and women are affected by a warmer climate in different ways. For example women in many parts of the world bear the main responsibility to provide the family with water and food. In times of more serious droughts this can mean that women all of a sudden have to spend much more hours fetching water and firewood than before. This in turn means less time for studying, participating in democratic and political processes or getting a paid job.

Because of all this, Rebecka Hagman concluded, it’s enormously important to bring all aspects into the climate change work.
– It’s not a gender neutral issue. We need different solutions, and we need voices from south and north, east and west, women and men – all groups in society, she said.

And what happened to the paragraph she wrote? Making more than 190 countries agree is a tough job, Rebecka Hagman admitted. After political horse-trading and struggles about commas and full stops, a watered down version finally made its way into the document. But a document that did not take strong action on emission reductions, which is after all its main purpose, said Rebecka Hagman. So: there is still a lot of work to be done.

Read Rebecka Hagman’s full master thesis “On a gendered road to Copenhagen”.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

August 16, 2010

  • Juan (Barcelona)

    I think that, either we involve women in the process leading to more sustainability and more corporate social responsibility, or we will not succeed. As you mention in your post, in many countries women are the ones with a more direct relationship with earth and daily matters, they have very often stronger ties with the community.
    AND, look at what has happened after centuries excluding women from decisions: climate change and the uncertain situation we are in right now. So, why not try the other way round? More power for women, I am sure that their model would be different!

  • Sara Jeswani

    Thanks for your comment, Juan! For another introduction to gender and climate change I can also recommend the report Gender issues in climate adaptation.

  • Pol – Croatia

    It is interesting that some of the main promoters of suistanable development in Croatia and particulary in my region are (younger) women. As well as in some other social development and healthcare areas, which are even traditionaly more represented by women, especially when more human softness and understanding is needed. Not to conclude man are neccesarily crude or apriori unfit, because sometimes it is hard for man too to be other then what the formal or unformal society from him expects, beggining with more violence and other treatments in the childhood.

    Also, it seems that some areas of science like medicine, biology and chemistry attracts women particulary well while other more mechanical areas are doing that very hard, even if they are open to them. However, i also noticed (during schooling and studing times) that women can be very good in matemathics as well, in average even better then men. So, it seems their potential in many other connected areas is not properly valorized.

    The problem of attracting and keeping women interested in some area besides “natural predisposition”, seems also a need to have some kind of “base women group” already inside the organisation which will be first line of contact for other women outside, because it appears it is easier and more spontaneous to connect ‘women with women’ first, not to mention to stay in touch longer. On the other hand the “women base group” should be properly and equaly connected with “man base group”, which is also crucial i think, also to better learn and explore our differences, similarities and interconectivities. …

  • Sara Jeswani

    Actually one scientist I interviewed once, said that she sees young women as the big hope in the climate issue, since attitude surveys show that young women take climate change more seriously than other groups do.
    I wouldn’t think that they (or we, I might say…) are predisposed for this in any way, but looking at traditional gender roles and what men and women are brought up to think and care about there are no doubt big differences.
    Groups where women can get together to work and share their experiences sounds like a good idea, especially in organisations which are very dominated by men.

  • Pol – Croatia

    I have no complaint about it. Actualy, i think women are doing it quite well already (with more or less companion of men colleagues) in suistainability area.

    Indeed, some organisation are still heavily dominated by men, especially in leading positions of big industrial companies with lots of man manualworkers, like shipbuilding. The best position women can get in such companies can be in middle management of human resources or finances, but most usually in accounting or secretary branch, with little chance of promotion.

    Even when the problem of employment, promotion and innovation in croatian enterprises depends also on many other non gender factors, with lots of “unsuported efforts” or restrained capabilities in both gender, which over the years (with every new generation “crossfire” introduction) consequently develops into sort of a unquestioned tradition or ‘bussines as usual’, on which everybody in the same time depends. So it is quite complicated to mess with it, unless you really know what and how to do it, on time of course. …

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