Why women more vulnerable to climate change than men: Opinion

Women are more vulnerable to climate change than men because they represent the majority of the world’s poor and are proportionally more dependent on threatened natural resources. Women have less access than men to resources such as land, credit, agricultural inputs, decision-making structures, technology, training, and extension services.

New Delhi: The English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson’s quote from the nineteenth century, “Man for the field and woman for the hearth,” sounds like a misnomer in the attribution of women in the 21st century. As a result, nearly a decade ago, in 2002, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women agreed on conclusions to increase women’s empowerment and promote gender equality in natural disasters or extreme climatic conditions.

Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues of the twenty-first century. Its impact varies depending on region, generation, age, class, income level, and gender. The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg confirmed the importance of gender analysis, gender-specific data, and gender mainstreaming in all sustainable development efforts.

According to the summit Declaration, “we are committed to ensuring that women’s empowerment, emancipation, and gender equality are integrated in all activities encompassed within Agenda 21, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the Summit Plan of Implementation.”

All of these efforts point to women’s vulnerability in the face of climate change. Why are women on the verge of being disproportionately affected? There are numerous reasons for this.

Based on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is evident that people who are already the most vulnerable and marginalised will also experience the greatest impacts. The poor, primarily in developing countries, are expected to be disproportionately affected and, consequently, in the greatest need of adaptation strategies in the face of climate variability and change. However, the impact of climate change on gender is not the same.

Women are increasingly being seen as more vulnerable than men to the impacts of climate change, mainly because they represent the majority of the world’s poor and are proportionally more dependent on threatened natural resources.

This is due to the fact that men and women have different roles, responsibilities, decision-making, access to land and natural resources, opportunities, and needs, which are shared by both sexes. Women worldwide have less access than men to resources such as land, credit, agricultural inputs, decision-making structures, technology, training, and extension services, all of which would improve their ability to adapt to climate change.

According to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), people who are already the most vulnerable and marginalised will bear the brunt of the consequences. The poor, particularly in developing countries, are expected to be disproportionately affected and, as a result, to require the most adaptation strategies in the face of climate variability and change.

The impact of climate change on gender, on the other hand, is not the same. Women are increasingly seen as more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men, owing to their representation of the majority of the world’s poor and their reliance on threatened natural resources.

When a disaster strikes, socio-cultural norms and childcare responsibilities prevent women from migrating, seeking refuge in other places, or working. Women are likely to bear additional burdens in such a situation, such as travelling longer distances to obtain drinking water and wood for fuel.

This is evident in our country’s most difficult areas. Women face gender inequalities in many developing countries, including human rights, political and economic status, land ownership, housing conditions, exposure to violence, education, and health. Climate change will be an additional stressor, exacerbating women’s vulnerability. It is well known that during times of conflict, women face increased domestic violence, sexual harassment, human trafficking, and rape.

Depending on the region, women farmers currently account for 45–80 percent of total food production in developing countries. Traditional food sources have become more unpredictable and scarcer as a result of climate change. Women face loss of income as well as harvests—often their sole sources of food and income.

Food price increases make food more inaccessible to the poor, particularly women and girls, whose health has been found to deteriorate more than male health during times of food scarcity. Furthermore, women are frequently excluded from decisions about access to and use of land and resources critical to their livelihoods.

Women and men in rural Africa and Asia rely heavily on biomass resources such as wood, agricultural crops, waste, and forest resources for energy and livelihoods. However, as a result of climate change, women and men’s ability to obtain these essential resources is diminishing.

Furthermore, floods, which are becoming more common as a result of climate change, may increase the prevalence of water-related diseases, particularly water and vector-borne diseases, which affect millions of poor people each year. Furthermore, an increase in disease prevalence likely exacerbates women’s caregiving of sick family and community members.

According to various studies and reports, technology is never gender-neutral. When combined with the negative effects of climate change, it becomes even less gender-sensitive. Social and cultural bias, inadequate technological infrastructure in rural areas, women’s lower education levels, fear of or lack of interest in technology, and women’s inability to purchase technology services all limit girls’ and women’s access to information and communication technology in many developing countries.

The issue, however, is that gender equality has received little attention to date. The extent to which climate change affects women has been overlooked. It is critical to emphasise that women must be included in all aspects of climate change projects, including technology. Women must be an important stakeholder in policy development aimed at uplifting women in the face of impending drastic climate change.

Written by Educationist: Reetu Srivastava