Conceptualizing gendered vulnerability to climate change in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Contextual conditions and drivers of change

Goodrich, Chanda Gurung; Udas, Pranita Bhushan; Larrington-Spencer, Harriet

doi:10.1016/j.envdev.2018.11.003

Cited by 46 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Also, globally, 70% of the health and social sector workforce are women, and only 30% of them are in the management position to make decisions, thereby putting them at a greater risk to COVID-19 pandemic (OECD 2020 ; Oppenheim 2020 ). An individual’s social capital is also an important determinant of their vulnerability during disasters or disease outbreaks (Goodrich et al 2019 ; Gupta 2020 ). Gupta ( 2020 ) contends that social distancing and self-isolation measures in response to COVID-19 put victims of abusive partners in more danger as they will be far from family and friends.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In line with the above assertion, several studies have been carried out, with many focusing on identifying the gendered impacts of climate change (Abbasi et al 2019;Bhadwal et al 2019;Eastin 2018;Goli et al 2020;Goodrich et al 2019) and COVID-19 (Alon et al 2020;Blundell et al 2020;Collins et al 2020;McLaren et al 2020). Several studies that draw linkages between climate change and COVID-19 have also emerged.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…While the impacts of these two problems are experienced on a societal scale, they have exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities in society and, in so doing, tend to affect some groups of people more than others (Blundell et al 2020 ; Eastin 2018 ). Women and girls, in particular, have been identified to be the worst affected in terms of the gendered impacts of climate change since its socioeconomic impacts pose gender-specific risks which disproportionately affect more women than men (Abbasi et al 2019 ; Eastin 2018 ; Goodrich et al 2019 ). It is widely acknowledged that women’s triple burden in the gender division of labor—productive, reproductive, and community roles—exacerbates their vulnerabilities in times of natural disasters, wars, or disease outbreaks (Bradshaw 2015 ; Sanaul and Mondal 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nexus between the gendered socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and climate change: implications for pandemic recovery

2021

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Gender is a critical factor in how people respond to, and recover from major disruptions such as natural disasters or disease outbreaks. Climate-related disasters are known to pose-gender specific problems that disproportionately affect more women than men. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts along gender lines are enormous, with women being the worst-affected. Existing studies have drawn connections between COVID-19 and climate change, with most arguing that responses to the pandemic provide an opportunity to tackle climate change through emission reduction strategies as part of recovery efforts. We introduce a new dimension to this connection by demonstrating that though different phenomena, COVID-19 and climate change are not so dissimilar in terms of their gendered socioeconomic impacts. Through a systematic review of the available literature, we establish a nexus between these impacts, and examine how the gender responses to COVID-19 can be leveraged to address gender-related climate impacts. We find that social protection, labor market, economic, and violence against women measures adopted in response to the pandemic provide a good opportunity to address the gender impacts of climate change as well. However, current COVID-19 gender responses do not incorporate the interconnections between the gender impacts of the pandemic and climate change. Adopting a nexus approach could help to leverage COVID-19 responses to address the gendered socioeconomic impacts of both crises.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nexus between the gendered socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and climate change: implications for pandemic recovery

2021

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“…The latter view is more consistent with the growing recognition that gender is not a binary, but rather one social grouping that intersects with other identities, such as marital status, age, class or ethnicity, to determine position in society; it is position in society, not gender per se, that has consequences for vulnerability and resilience to climate change 2,5,6 . For instance, gender differences in perceptions of household livelihood resilience in Kenya intersect with ethnicity, leading to different adaptive capacities for women in similar settings but from different ethnic groups 7 .…”

Section: Gender In Conservation and Climate Policymentioning

confidence: 85%

Gender in conservation and climate policy

2019

Nat. Clim. Chang.

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“…What emerges is an acknowledgement that environmental stress can combine with other contextual conditions to act as a major depressor of women's agency, despite the existence of other enablers 81,82 . Importantly, social institutions and relations are central in shaping women's agency, yet their role is often underplayed in discussions which view agency only as individual choice or freedom 29,[78][79][80] . Even when household structures and social norms are supportive, or legal entitlements available, environmental stress contributes to intensifying exclusionary mechanisms, leading to household strategies that place increasing responsibilities and burdens on women, especially those who are young, less educated, and belonging to lower classes, or marginal castes and ethnicities.…”

Section: Implications For Equitable Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A qualitative comparative analysis of women’s agency and adaptive capacity in climate change hotspots in Asia and Africa

Rao

Mishra

Prakash³

et al. 2019

Nat. Clim. Chang.

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There is growing concern about sustainable and equitable adaptation in climate change hotspots, commonly understood as locations that concentrate high climatic variability, societal vulnerability, and negative impacts on livelihood systems. Emphasizing gender within these debates highlights how demographic, socio-economic and agro-ecological contexts mediate the experiences and outcomes of climate change. Drawing on data from 25 qualitative case studies across three hotspots in Africa and Asia, analysed using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we show how and in what ways women's agency, or the ability to make meaningful choices and strategic decisions, contributes to adaptation responses. We find that environmental stress is a key depressor of women's agency even when household structures and social norms are supportive, or legal entitlements available. These findings have implications for the effective implementation of multilateral agreements such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Sustainable Development Goals.Sustainable, equitable, and effective adaptation is critical in climate change hotspots, locations where climatic shifts, social structures, and livelihood sensitivity converge to exacerbate vulnerability 1,2 . Entrenched social structures create power relations that shape women's and men's experiences of vulnerability through access to resources, divisions of work, and cultural norms around mobility and decision-making, all of which determine adaptive capacity 6,10-21 . Involving trade-offs at every level 12,[22][23][24] , these contextual factors not only shape vulnerabilities but also create possibilities for adaptation 25 .When examining gendered vulnerability and the way in which it is manifest in unequal patriarchal systems, women's agency has emerged as key to realising adaptive capacity, but remains understudied 11 . Drawing on feminist arguments to move beyond simplistic framings of actors in terms of active or passive, victims or perpetrators 7,26,27 , we conceptualise agency as the ability to make meaningful choices and strategic decisions 28 . It can take multiple forms, from bargaining and negotiation to subversion and resistance 29 , varying across institutional sites and scales, and drawing differentially on available material or social resources 28 . Institutions, ranging from the micro (household) and meso (community) level, to the more macro-levels of markets and states 30 , interact and intersect with each other, often intensifying or reproducing inequalities. The rules and norms they establish, can be formal or informal, complementary or competing 31 , giving specific meaning to particular activities, resources and relationships. In the context of climate action, while some research explores the role of social capital, especially women's groups, for instance, in supporting women's agency 32,33 , a nuanced institutional analysis, linking women's agency and its implications for adaptive capacity remains miss...

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Conceptualizing gendered vulnerability to climate change in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Contextual conditions and drivers of change

Cited by 46 publications

References 68 publications

Nexus between the gendered socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and climate change: implications for pandemic recovery

Nexus between the gendered socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and climate change: implications for pandemic recovery

Gender in conservation and climate policy

A qualitative comparative analysis of women’s agency and adaptive capacity in climate change hotspots in Asia and Africa

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