Gender and Climate Change: Towards Comprehensive Policy Options

Abstract

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Gender inclusion in ecological restoration

“…A critical issue for restoration is not only which positive outcomes result from a project but also who benefits from it (Boedhihartono & Sayer 2012). For example, women and children are usually the primary victims of the extreme adverse impact of climate change, and more likely to become climate change refugees (Al‐Amin et al 2019), so climate change mitigation through restoration could be more beneficial to women than to men (Schwerhoff & Konte 2020). Similarly, the vulnerability to water scarcity is also gendered and age‐driven, given women's and children's sociocultural responsibility as carriers of water and collectors of firewood for household use in certain countries (Biran et al 2004; Rao et al 2019).…”

Intra-household decision-making and perceived climate change resilience among smallholder farmers in semi-arid northern Ghana

“…Climate change adaptation is the shifts in natural and human systems in response to experienced or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] 2019). In spite of global initiatives aimed at improving climate change adaptation and resilience, a key issue militating against this agenda in smallholder farming households is the lack of participation of other household members, especially women and youth, in climate change adaptation decisionmaking, due to the dictates of prevailing sociocultural norms (Ampaire et al 2020;Schwerhoff and Konte 2020). Contextual understanding of how sociocultural norms influence societal and familial interactions across different spaces is particularly important because it plays an immense role in shaping climatic perceptions and what solutions and deployment strategies are deemed as acceptable (Yiridomoh et al 2021).…”

“…Nonetheless, in most smallholder farming communities in Ghana, structural norms support the patriarchal household models whereby male household heads make decisions about agriculture regarding what to plant, what methods to use in cultivation, and how the proceeds from the farm are used (Eastin 2018;Tsige et al 2020). These structural hierarchies mostly exclude women and the youth from partaking in household decision-making about agriculture and thus, undermining their capacity to contribute to household climate change adaptative strategies (Schwerhoff and Konte 2020). This is despite growing evidence that women and men have diverse and potentially mutually reinforcing knowledge bases on how to address climate change and other environmental problems (Mitchell et al 2007;Ravera et al 2016).…”

Understanding policy and institutional strategies to support the participation of women and women organisations within UNFCCC-led climate change governance

“…Moreover, some scholars have expressed reservations about presenting women as a homogeneous group of actors who are all able to advocate for women's interests (Annesley and Gains 2010) or want to (Childs and Krook 2009;O'Neil and Domingo 2016). On the other hand, a number of studies argue that women have distinctive qualities which should be harnessed for achieving better outcomes of climate change policies and enhancing the gender sensitivity of policy solutions (Schwerhoff and Konte 2020;Annesley and Gains 2010;Villagrasa 2002). It is believed that women as a group can enhance decision-making processes, particularly when they can draw on their strengths such as networking, interpersonal skills, and abilities to co-operate (Sweetman 2002).…”