Gender Inequality and Adaptive Capacity: The Role of Social Capital on the Impacts of Climate Change in Vietnam

Abstract

Climate change has exacerbated gender inequality, and women are a vulnerable group. Previous research attributed this to physical gender differences, gender differences in ownership and control of natural resources, and socioeconomic status. We used a survey of 99 participants, seven focus group discussions, and 13 in-depth interviews in a coastal community in Vietnam to gain insight into the roots of gender inequality in the capacity to adapt to climate change. We analysed the role of social capital in regulating and mobilising other livelihood assets from a gendered perspective and found that gender norms explain the division and interactions of men and women in formal and informal networks. Based on our results, we suggest that policy-makers should pay more attention to gender issues when proposing climate change policies and reducing the gender imbalance in the impact of climate change adaptation.

Climate change vulnerability and adaptation in Vietnam from a gender perspective: a case study of Northern province of Vietnam

“…Similarly, the Vietnam Farmers' Union, a hierarchy organization with memberships of around ten million from local to national level, is in charge of improving living conditions of farmers (Vietnam News, 2018). Affiliation with these organizations provides women with more opportunities to access to information, communication, services and interventions to improve their livelihoods and well-being (Phan et al , 2019). Nearly 85% of female heads say that they receive support from mass organizations in the last 12 months.…”

Who is more ready to get back in shape?

“…The second assumption is that those weights and likewise the agricultural livelihood are transferable across neighboring countries with similar characteristics. We further defined the proxy of sub-indicators according to the matched features, and if available, the previous literature like interaction between urban location and female networks to gather information [7]. The precise proxy sub-indicators used are reflected in Table 1.…”

“…[1] explicitly applied the adaptive capacity model in the Philippines by a composite index from the combination of survey data and experts' opinion that determines the weights of the indicators. [7] carried out the study of The number of income sources is more than two adaptive capacity with a gender lens in Vietnam. To the best of our knowledge, there is no quantitative study on resilience or adaptive capacity in Cambodia that has taken place to date.…”

Adaptive capacity beyond the household: a systematic review of empirical social-ecological research

“…Chang et al 2017, Bangwayo-Skeete and Skeete 2020), most of the studies we reviewed used static measurements or indicators to assess the dynamic processes and feedbacks that shape adaptive capacity (e.g. Burton 2015, Weis et al 2016, Phan et al 2019, and thus this scholarship likely does not reach practitioners or policy makers who may be able to learn and act based on the evaluation of adaptive capacity over time (Hinkel 2011).…”