Climate Change, “Technology” and Gender: “Adapting Women” to Climate Change with Cooking Stoves and Water Reservoirs

Abstract

In the countries most affected by climate change, such as Nicaragua, adaptation technologies are promoted with the twofold aim of securing the livelihoods of rural women and men while reducing the climaterelated risks they face. Although researchers and practitioners are usually aware that not every "technology" may be beneficial, they do not sufficiently take into account the injustices that these adaptation technologies could (re)produce. Inspired by the works of feminist scholars engaged in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), this article attempts to demonstrate the need to broaden the debate on gender-sensitive climate change adaptation technologies. I argue that, first and foremost, this debate must question the potentially oppressive effects of the climate change narratives that call for technological solutions. Second, I urge feminist researchers and practitioners to denounce the counter-productive effects of adaptation technologies that impede the transformation of the "traditional" gender roles. Based

“We Are Prisoners in Our Own Homes”: Connecting the Environment, Gender-Based Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights to Sport for Development and Peace in Nicaragua

“…In summary, this article has attempted to contribute to sociological and environmental studies of SDP in four key ways, specifically by: (1) Demonstrating how gendered hierarchies, roles and relations operate and are reinforced through SGD-and sport more broadly-through the pursuit of neoliberal and colonial development in the guise of sustainable practices; (2) underlining the complex gendered, racialized and economic relations that operate to impel both human and non-human elements in shaping SGD programming in unintended ways; (3) showing how the prevention of violence to the land and physical environment is deeply enmeshed with preventing violence against young women's bodies, and to broader decolonization efforts-issues that must move to the vanguard of SGD and SDP studies [109].…”

“…Various studies highlight how Nicaragua is especially prone to damage from hurricanes and tropical storms (e.g., [78]), and is "susceptible to other natural disasters including floods, droughts and landslides, events whose frequency, severity and impacts will be amplified by increased climate variability," [97]. Equally, though, a number of scholars critically discuss the gendered dimensions of climate change in Nicaragua; in particular, by exploring how international development entities working on gender equality and gender-sensitive climate adaptation policies understand the impacts that climate change may have on gender relations, gender roles, identities and divisions of labour [1,3,78]. For example, Gonda [1] describes how the Nicaraguan government promotes the deep connection between women and the environment, such that "women have a natural connection to nature, and therefore that they are especially apt to fight environmental degradation and climate change" (p. 173).…”

“…Across Nicaragua, there has been increased deforestation and land degradation, mostly due to policies that promoted expansive cattle-ranching and commercial deforestation during the 1970s [3]. In recent years, heightened climate variability in combination with a sharp increase in soil unpredictability, water scarcity and chronic natural disasters has resulted in food insecurity and poverty at dangerous levels, with "25% of rural farming household classified as extremely poor" [97].…”

“…[2] This study shares the excerpts above to draw attention to the ways that sport for development and peace (SDP)-or the use of sport to achieve development objectives as outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals-intersects with environmental degradation in Nicaragua, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health rights, and the activities pursued by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as tenable solutions to address these same issues. Certainly, feminist political ecology perspectives on climate change posits that the relationship between the environment and gender is an active process largely shaped by culture and society, and it remains relatively novel within academic and policy arenas alike [3,4]. Similarly, the use of sport, gender, and development (SGD) programming is also understood as how sport is used to address gender-related (international) development goals and how it attends to (environmental) sustainability, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) which remains understudied.…”

Comparing the transformative potentials of the FCCC and the CCD: An ecofeminist exploration

“…163 These examples indicate that the climate change regime has not yet properly engaged in the ways in which the focus on technology and science is disembedded and disembodied from the ecological world and communities. 164 This means that such initiatives are unlikely to be effective unless the focus becomes more embodied within the ecological world.…”