The lights are on but no (men) are home. The effect of traditional gender roles on perceptions of energy in Kenya

Fingleton-Smith, Edwina

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2018.01.006

Cited by 55 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The main selection criterion for Photovoice participants was gender; eight women and two men from each village were recruited in recognition of the primary role of women as family cooks and of the unequal intrahousehold power of men, in this context. 41 This sample was also purposively selected to include a range of ages, female heads of households and non-users of cookstoves. Each village had an assigned CoLT member who was recruited for this study.…”

Section: Study Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Pneumonia has gone’: exploring perceptions of health in a cookstove intervention trial in rural Malawi

et al. 2021

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IntroductionAir pollution through cooking on open fires or inefficient cookstoves using biomass fuels has been linked with impaired lung health and with over 4 million premature deaths per annum. However, use of cleaner cookstoves is often sporadic and there are indications that longer-term health benefits are not prioritised by users. There is also limited information about how recipients of cookstoves perceive the health benefits of clean cooking interventions. We therefore conducted a qualitative study alongside the Cooking and Pneumonia Study (CAPS).MethodsQualitative methods and the participatory methodology Photovoice were used in an in-depth examination of health perceptions and understandings of CAPS trial participants. Fifty participants in five CAPS intervention villages collected images about cooking. These were discussed in village-level focus groups and in interviews with 12 representative participants. Village community representatives were also interviewed. Four female and eight male CAPS fieldworkers took part in gender-specific focus groups and two female and two male fieldworkers were interviewed. A thematic content approach was used for data analysis.ResultsWe found a disconnect between locally situated perceptions of health and the biomedically focused trial model. This included the development of potentially harmful understandings such as that pneumonia was no longer a threat and potential confusion between the symptoms of pneumonia and malaria. Study participants perceived health and well-being benefits including: cookstoves saved bodily energy; quick cooking helped maintain family harmony.ConclusionA deeper understanding of narratives of health within CAPS showed how context-specific perceptions of the health benefits of cookstoves were developed. This highlighted the conflicting priorities of cookstove intervention researchers and participants, and unintended and potentially harmful health understandings. The study also emphasises the importance of including qualitative explorations in similar complex interventions where potential pathways to beneficial (and harmful) effects, cannot be completely explicated through biomedical models alone.

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Section: Study Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Pneumonia has gone’: exploring perceptions of health in a cookstove intervention trial in rural Malawi

et al. 2021

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“…With respect to socio-cultural considerations, CCS adoption and sustained use can be inhibited by inertia-inducing influences including taste preferences, [12,21,24,32] and religious customs surrounding stove/fuel use [20,32,43]. Culturally-constructed gender norms that give women responsibility for cooking and fuel collection but deny them control over household budgets may also limit CCS transitions [5,31,36,39,42,44,45]. By contrast, other socio-cultural factors can help promote CCS adoption including their aspirational appeal [12], associations between ritual purity and clean kitchens/pots [32] and challenges to gendered household decision-making by more educated or financially independent women [12,20,39].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of incentives and instructions on behaviour in driving simulator studies

Harvey

Burnett

2019

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviou

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Drawing on qualitative data from three contrasting sites in Benue state, Nigeria, this paper explores how and why cooking system use and priorities vary over time and space as well as the influence of household air pollution (HAP)-related health risks on fuel and stove choices. The findings indicated that cooking system choices were constrained by economic and access considerations linked to spatio-temporal variations in fuel cost, availability and service quality coupled with socio-cultural and utilitarian influences on cooking practices. Respondents demonstrated strong preferences for wood-fuelled traditional stoves although shifts in fuel use between wet and dry seasons were observed. Stove and fuel 'stacking' were widely practised to meet different cooking requirements and minimise risks from (often seasonal) variations in fuel prices, access and reliability of supply. 'Backsliding' from clean to solid biomass fuels was observed when families outgrew their improved cookstoves or considered biomass to be more affordable, reliable, accessible or safer. There was limited awareness or concern about HAP-related health risks and smoke was valued for preserving food and signalling food security. Attention is drawn to the value of integrating household risk perceptions into improved cookstove promotion and behaviour change initiatives to better understand constraints to the adoption and sustained use of clean cooking systems. The paper concludes by highlighting the benefits of monitoring household cooking system stacks (rather than the 'main' fuel/stove used) for analysing how their components vary over space and time and providing insights into the effectiveness of measures taken to reduce HAP exposure.

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“…My findings therefore contribute to the case made by other scholars interested in the energy and gender nexus, that energy does not, in itself, necessarily facilitate gender equality or empowerment (Clancy et al 2007;Standal and Winther 2016;Winther et al 2019;de Groot et al 2017;Fingleton-Smith 2018;Johnson, Gerber, and Muhoza 2019;Pueyo and Maestre 2019). Indeed, as Cindy and Stacey recounted, even engaging in collective organising and enacting agency in many contexts does not ensure that empowerment is absolute.…”

Section: Theorising Energymentioning

confidence: 53%

“…Given the contextual nature of the energy-gender nexus, it is important for this thesis to examine the nature of this relationship in South Africa. Similarly to other parts of Southern Africa (Johnson, Gerber, and Muhoza 2019) and sub-Saharan Africa (Winther, Ulsrud, and Saini 2018;Fingleton-Smith 2018;Matinga, Annegarn, and Clancy 2013), South African studies show women have the primary role in collecting and using household energy sources (Dugard and Mohlakoana 2009;Annecke 2000;Mehlwana 1997;Mohlakoana and Annecke 2009;Matinga, Annegarn, and Clancy 2013;. Studies have also highlighted the social and gendered identities evoked by energy practices, and which drive gender roles regarding energy (see Dugard and Mohlakoana 2009;Matinga, Annegarn, and Clancy 2013;Annecke 1999;Annecke 2000;Annecke 2003).…”

Section: Energy Inequalities and Gender In South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These findings on political participation significantly expand understandings of the energy-gender nexus and its relationship to gendered empowerment. At present, most energygender studies focus on women's empowerment and the transformation of gender relations within an interpersonal, or at most local, setting (Roy 2012;Sovacool and Drupady 2012;Standal and Winther 2016;Sovacool et al 2013;Fingleton-Smith 2018). Yet the cases presented here demonstrate that energy interventions are a potential avenue to support women's empowerment, transform gender roles in governance, or political and societal level spheres, and challenge structural and institutional gender inequalities.…”

Section: Interactive (Empowering) Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Energy for empowerment: the role of energy in women’s organising and empowerment in urban and peri-urban South Africa

Listo¹

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In feminist scholarship empowerment has been extensively theorised and critiqued, yet it has only recent emerged as a critical concept in energy and gender thinking. An emerging body of studies have begun to more critically theorise empowerment and the links with energy access, yet these studies give less emphasis to key aspects of empowerment as it is conceived by feminist scholars, including collectivity or community, process and social practice. In this thesis, I bring such elements into the conversation of energy, gender and empowerment, and so contribute to an ongoing tradition of feminist energy scholarship. The central aim is to explore the practices and experiences of women who are collectively organising to improve their energy systems, and the role of energy in the process of their empowerment. I do so in the context of urban and peri-urban contexts in South Africa, a country with its own tradition of gender-specialist and feminist researchers and advocates with a focus on energy. Specifically, I address: 1) How, and through what practices, are women collectively organising for better energy systems? 2) In what ways does organising for energy facilitate women's empowerment? 3) What role does energy play in transforming gendered identities and empowerment? My orientation is explicitly feminist and I am guided by a theoretical framework of feminist concepts, namely gender, empowerment and power. I hold the notion of empowerment with complexity, embracing the significant debates which underpin its theorisation. I investigate three case studies in urban and peri-urban South Africa, of organised groups of self-identifying women, such as people's movements, or women's committees, which are active at a local community level and supported by external NGOs. I have taken a feminist methodological approach, with the intention of transformative research practice and attention to both academic and political rigour. This included qualitative data collection methods, adapting a combination of narrative methods such as Oral History Interviews, and Collective Narrative Practice methods with both women and the NGOs to draw out stories and experiences of women as individuals and as collectives. I found that energy, rather than being a causal factor, is intertwined with broader societal institutions and norms which drive the conditions gendered disempowerment and inequality. Equally, energy is intertwined with femininities, conceived as shared expressions gender. In analysing the role of NGO interventions in shaping women's experiences of collective empowerment, I unearthed the significant influence of community practice in enabling empowerment. Finally, I examined women's experiences of empowerment, and the factors they identified as crucial to increasing their power. I found that while the materiality of energy played a role in this process, equally significant were intangible resources such as relationships, learning and theory, and skills, and in these contexts energy's immaterial nature was also significant. In examin...

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The lights are on but no (men) are home. The effect of traditional gender roles on perceptions of energy in Kenya

Cited by 55 publications

References 44 publications

‘Pneumonia has gone’: exploring perceptions of health in a cookstove intervention trial in rural Malawi

‘Pneumonia has gone’: exploring perceptions of health in a cookstove intervention trial in rural Malawi

The influence of incentives and instructions on behaviour in driving simulator studies

Energy for empowerment: the role of energy in women’s organising and empowerment in urban and peri-urban South Africa

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