Gender and energy: domestic inequities reconsidered

Abstract

Energy poverty is widely recognized as a problem that affects millions of households globally. Particularly in the 'Global North' context, research into this phenomenon has tended to treat households as monolithic units, with little investigation into whether and how energy poverty is differentially experienced within homes. We address this research lacuna by scrutinizing the gender dimensions of domestic energy use and deprivation. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in Poland, Greece and Czechia, we identify two ways in which energy poverty is differentially experienced along gender lines: household practices of responding to and resisting energy poverty, and the emotional labour of living with energy poverty. We also demonstrate how the negotiation of domestic energy deprivation can unveil not only gendered vulnerabilities, but also agency and emancipatory mechanisms. The paper thus provides insights that set an agenda for further research on gendered energy injustices beyond a simplistic, dichotomized victimization discourse.

Confronting Energy Poverty in Europe: A Research and Policy Agenda

“…Among socio-demographic factors, the decisive role of gender inequalities has received particular attention [49], with Petrova and Simcock [11] contending that energy poverty is differentially experienced along gender lines, both in terms of "household practices of responding to and resisting energy poverty" (p. 1), and the emotional labour of living in, and responding to, the lack of adequate energy services in the home. Importantly, their research highlights how gendered vulnerabilities-as well as associated forms of political agency and emancipation-surface as a result of household strategies to confront domestic energy deprivation.…”

“…Thanks, in part, to the wide range of EU-funded research projects on the topic, there is now a much more extensive scholarly understanding of the socio-demographic factors that drive the condition, highlighting vulnerabilities along a multiplicity of axes: income, age and gender [8][9][10][11]. The roles that increasing energy prices [12] and low levels of energy efficiency [13,14] play in this context has also been extensively investigated.…”

Abordagens qualitativas em estudos sobre pobreza: uma revisão estruturada da literatura

“…Análise temática das respostas dos participantes. (Petrova & Simcock, 2019) Examinar as dimensões de gênero no uso e privação de energia doméstica.…”

Winners of the 2019 Jim Lewis Prize

“…A second strand, explored in further detail in a companion article (Petrova and Prodromidou, 2019), referred to the everyday experiences and consequences of austerity itself: they overflowed the boundaries of individual homes and households, creating further injustices while becoming politically conditioned through wider processes of “energy precarization” (Petrova, 2017). Thirdly, it became clear that gender inequalities are a major determinant of the underlying factors and agentic capacities associated with the socio-technical landscapes of austerity (Petrova and Simcock, 2019).…”