June 2009 Volume 14 Number 6

Climate change is a feminist issue

Governments, NGOs and charities are beginning to recognise that women are most vulnerable to climate change and that gender issues should be taken into account in international negotiations and response plans.

We already know that the poor are impacted most by climate change and that women make up 70 percent of the world's poorest. In the developing world many women farm to support their family and natural disasters, such as drought and floods, result in extreme hardship.

NGOs have also found that social inequalities have a part to play in this, women tending to stay in their homes rather than flee floods, for example. Oxfam has found that women are less adept at climbing trees and other structures to escape floods and that female clothing can restrict movement and hamper evacuation attempts. Startlingly, 90 percent of those people killed in Cuddalore, India, as a result of the 2004 tsunami were women.

Disparities in climate-related deaths can also be found in Europe. During the heat wave of 2003, women made up 70 percent of those who died.

With women in the developed world still earning less than their male counterparts, and men still dominating boardrooms and the political stage, we seem to be, sadly, still a long way from achieving gender equality. However, programmes of education and targeted funding could go a long way to helping women adapt to climate change.

Our lead article this month, by Patrick Wrokpoh, demonstrates how Liberian representatives are working to bring gender issues to the table at international negotiations on climate change and how women farmers are being forced to adjust to changing weather patterns.

Liberia would be an interesting case for a gender and climate change focused education programme. It is a country where female literacy between the ages of 15 and 24 is 70 percent and where women farmers have a keen knowledge of changing weather patterns. With 85 percent of the population living on less than $1 (£0.66) a day, many rely on the land for their survival. Help now to adapt to climate change would empower women, giving them the skills and resources to support their families, enabling them to pass on their knowledge to others and would go some way to reducing future food shortages. Isn't it time we gave women the support they need to sustain their communities?

Erika Yarrow, Editor, WEM (The Environment Magazine) wemeditor@ciwem.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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