Gender-based Research and Perspectives

This section provides relevant and new research relating to climate change from a gendered perspective.

Williams, Lewis et al. (Feb 2018) Women and Climate Change Impacts and Action.

This research article establishes the fact that women are disproportionally affected by the impacts of climate change. Women’s traditional roles as primary users and managers of natural resources, primary caregivers, and keepers of the home basically means they are intimately involved with and rely upon funds as well as resources that are most at risk due to climate change. Unfortunately, it is also women who are under-represented at all levels of climate change decision making within Canada. Canada’s disinvestment in women’s equality over the last decade has significantly impaired the policy capacity of women’s organizations and gender experts to engage in the climate change debate.

Research with Inuit communities in Canada’s Northern and Arctic regions reflects spiritual, social, and material impacts of climate change for women. A number of identified factors (poverty, technological capacity, sociopolitical values and inequalities, information deficit, and lack of institutional capacity) that are differently distributed across Canadian Indigenous communities, impact the capability to respond to climate change. Even combinations of gender, income, and race; gender and disability; and gender and sexual identity affect people’s experiences of climate change. Women–through their paid and unpaid work, roles, and responsibilities–are local knowledge experts on the impacts of climate change and ways of mitigating and adapting to its effects. The gendered impacts of climate change and associated policies are evident throughout Canada. Impacts of climate change are differently distributed amongst women according to geography, identities, and social statuses such as income, race and ethnicity, age, and ability. For Indigenous women, climate change adaptation and mitigation are interwoven with relational responsibilities “that facilitate the future flourishing of Indigenous lives that are closely connected to the earth and its many living and nonliving beings and natural inter-dependent collectives”. At local levels, women, and especially Indigenous women, have been taking action on climate change for some time.

Sorenson, C. et al. (2018 June 10). Climate change and women’s health: impacts and policy directions. PLOS Medicine.

As noted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) women, especially those in poverty, face higher risks and experience a greater burden of climate change impacts. This is notably true for health impacts, making climate change a risk multiplier for gender-based health disparities. Both men and women are at risk for amplified health impacts. Women have distinct health needs, such as nutritional demands during pregnancy, which places them at risk of suffering from climate-sensitive diseases. Men experience other risks, such as suicide and severe depression in the face of drought and resulting agricultural losses, and may be at higher risk of drowning during severe weather. Compounding women's health vulnerabilities are cultural constructs, which amplify risk on a regional scale.

Eyzaguirre, J. (2008/9 Fall/Winter) Climate change and Canada: An untapped opportunity to advance gender equality? Canadian Women’s Health Network.

Addressing gender differences in government policies and programs has not been among the topics of discussion. Climate change is an environmental and socio-economic concern shared across Canada. Women play special and gender-specific roles in both types of policy response, yet these roles remain poorly understood. However, the lack of analysis and debate in Canada on the linkage between gender and climate change is not atypical. Dialogue that does take place focuses mainly on developing countries where differences between men and women in income, education, economic opportunities and access to and use of energy resources, highlight the relevant of gender in designing climate policies and programs.

Reed, M. et al. (2014 September) Linking gender, climate change, adaptive capacity and forest-based communities in Canada. Canadian Journal of Forestry Research. Vol 44(9).

While there are no trees in Nunavut, and the forestry industry is not within the Nunavut economy, this article is a rare treatment of the issue of gender and decisiomaking regarding climate change and adaptation. The degree to which people are affected by climate change impacts is partly a function of their social status, gender, poverty, power and access to and control over resources. Despite the international community's increasing acknowledgement of the differential experiences and skills women and men bring to development and sustainability efforts, the impacts of gender inequalities and women's recurrent socio-economic disadvantages continue to be ignored and remain a critical challenge to adaptation efforts...it is crucial that mitigation and adaptation efforts integrate gender issues at all levels.