Gender and environment

Abstract

The relationship between women and nature is not recent. Throughout the history of humanity, symbolism is very present within the ideas that bring female gender close to nature. However, we must acknowledge that the way in which women interact with the environment is an output of social relationships that pre-establish women's specific responsibilities given gender relationships. These relationships are socially constructed, and they differ with one another according to the social and economic class they are embedded in, apart from being reflected into the public and household tasks they have. Because of the contemporaneity of the issue, and as it is constant transformation, this editorial will tackle the theme of "gender and environment"; one of the best ways to begin is by the 20 th principle of the Rio Declaration, 1992, which highlights women's importance in environment and development management. Academic and international organisations production stress that women have undertaken, as a whole, management and support of natural resources that constitute the everyday life of community groups, villages, and of the world's most excluded sectors. Nonetheless, that participation goes beyond this reality. Women's role in society is multifaceted, not only in the duties that help nourish domestic social life, but in the public sphere as well. As fisherwomen, farmers, and so many other local scale producers linked to the environment, they contribute to the livelihood of their families and communities, developing a production dynamic, and their participation in the production chain. The United Nations has highlighted in innumerous documents women's role in managing natural resources, as well as key player in local, regional, and global initiatives. One of the UN documents with this vision is Agenda 21; it claims women's importance in sustainable development, suggesting governments to go further in implementing strategies that envisage their crucial role in the sociopolitical dimension of environmental matters. Thus, women have a fundamental role in the enterprise of preserving natural resources, within a context of necessary advancements for more sustainable policies, facing the current consumption logic, and in such a direction that points out possible actions in which alternative proposals of sustainable consumption and waste reduction prevail. In many environment related conferences they assume a leading role and bring the need to further participate of the decision making process. However, in spite of stating the need for increasing empowerment, it has taken place in daily life very incipiently, and women are still significantly excluded from decision making processes related to environmental policies notwithstanding their close proximity with the environmental theme. Women's integration in formulating, planning, and execution of environmental policies is developing very slowly, despite the growing international recognition that without their full participation, it will not be possible to progress consistently and ...

Estruturas e representações sobre a desigualdade de gênero na gestão da água em Ouro Preto/ MG: uma análise da percepção de conselheiros e gestores dos órgãos municipais / Structures and representations on gender inequality in water management in Ouro Preto / MG: an analysis of the perception of councilors and managers of municipal bodies

“…A incorporação das perspectivas de todos os sexos nos processos de decisão possibilita a igualdade de oportunidades, (STIEGLER, 2003), independente que as esferas sejam da vida pública ou privada, (WALBY, 2003), pois ao dar visibilidade às questões de gênero ambos os sexos beneficiaram de forma equânime pelos esforços na gestão dos recursos hídricos, (CHIFAMBA, 2014) Conforme Jacobi et al (2015), apesar do discurso demostrar a necessidade de maior protagonismo da mulher, no cotidiano, a participação tem ocorrido de forma muito incipiente, e apesar da proximidade com a temática ambiental, a mulher está ausente dos processos de tomada de decisão em relação às políticas ambientais, porém há o Brazilian Applied Science Review, Curitiba, v.6, n.3, p. 1125-1147,may./jun., 2022 reconhecimento de que sem a participação feminina não será possível avançar plenamente para uma sociedade mais sustentável.…”