Energy

Citation:

Rathi, Sambhu Singh, and Claire Vermaak. 2018. “Rural Electrification, Gender and the Labor Market: A Cross-Country Study of India and South Africa.” World Development 109: 346-59.

Authors: Sambhu Singh Rathi, Claire Vermaak

Abstract:

This cross-country study estimates the effect of household electrification on labor market outcomes for rural individuals in India and South Africa, two developing countries that have implemented large-scale rural electrification schemes in recent decades. Two identification strategies are used: propensity score matching and panel fixed effects estimation. We focus on three indicators of labor market success: employment, earnings and hours worked. We find that electrification raises the annual incomes earned by those who work in paid employment, for both men and women in both countries. For India, both genders work fewer hours, suggesting that electricity raises productivity. For South Africa, where the labor market has less absorptive capacity, there is no employment benefit of electrification. But women who work benefit the most from the productivity gains of electrification: they have greater increases in earnings than men. Our findings suggest that the benefits of electrification do not accrue universally, but rather depend on gender roles, supporting policies and the labor absorptive capacity of the economy.

Keywords: rural electrification, labor market, gender, India, South Africa

Topics: Economies, Gender, Gender Roles, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, Southern Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: India, South Africa

Year: 2018

Citation:

Sedai, A. K., R. Nepal, and T. Jamasb. 2020. “Electrification and Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women in India.” Cambridge Working Papers in Economics, Cambridge University, London.

Authors: A. K. Sedai, R. Nepal, T. Jamasb

Abstract:

This study examines the effect of quality of electrification on empowerment of women in terms of economic autonomy, agency, mobility, decision-making abilities, and time allocation in fuel collection in India. It moves beyond the consensus of counting electried households as a measure of progress in gender parity, and analyzes how the quality of electrification affects women's intra-household bargaining power, labor supply decision and fuel collection time. We develop a set of indices using principal component analysis from a large cross-section of gender-disaggregated survey. We use two stage least squares instrumental variables regression to assess the causal effect of access and hours of electricity on women's empowerment using geographic instrumental variables along with district and caste fixed effects. The results show that quality of electrication has significant positive effects on all empowerment indices. However, the effect differs at the margin of defficiency, location, living standards and education. The study recommends revisiting the paradigm of access to electrification and women empowerment by focusing on the quality of not only extensive but also intensive electrification to enhance life and economic opportunities for women and their households.

Keywords: electrification, socio-economic empowerment of women, India

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020

Citation:

Samad, Hussain A., and Fan Zhang. 2019. “Electrification and Women's Empowerment: Evidence from Rural India.” Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank Group, Washington, D.C.

Authors: Hussain A. Samad, Fan Zhang

Abstract:

Electrification has been shown to accelerate opportunities for women by moving them into more productive activities, but whether improvements in economic outcomes also change gender norms and practices within the household remains unclear. This paper investigates the causal link between electricity access and women's empowerment, using a large gender-disaggregated data set on India. Empowerment is measured by women's decision-making ability, mobility, financial autonomy, reproductive freedom, and social participation. Using propensity score matching, the study finds that electrification enhances all measures of women's empowerment and is associated with an 11-percentage point increase in the overall empowerment index. Employment and education are identified as the two most important causal channels through which electrification enables empowerment.

Topics: Economies, Education, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2019

Citation:

Glemarec, Yannick, Fiona Bayat-Renoux, and Oliver Waissbein. 2016. “Removing Barriers to Women Entrepreneurs’ Engagement in Decentralized Sustainable Energy Solutions for the Poor.” AIMS Energy 4 (1): 136–72.

Authors: Yannick Glemarec, Fiona Bayat-Renoux, Oliver Waissbein

Abstract:

Rapidly falling renewable technology costs and new business models mean that decentralized energy solutions hold great promise to accelerate universal sustainable energy access. Across developing countries, women are typically the primary household energy managers. Close to their customers, women entrepreneurs have the potential to lower customer acquisition and servicing costs and drive these new decentralized solutions. However, they remain under-represented in the industry.

This paper attempts to understand the root causes of this gender gap. It formulates the research hypothesis that market transformation policies intended to reduce investment risks to accelerate energy access may not benefit men and women entrepreneurs equally because of the existing structural barriers that women face. To test this hypothesis, the paper conducts a gender sensitive investment barrier and risk analysis, overlaid onto an existing gender neutral taxonomy of investment barriers and risks for decentralized sustainable energy solutions.

A key finding is that for women entrepreneurs, existing structural impediments to gender equality translate into additional investment barriers as well as increased likelihood of occurrence and severity of the financial impact of generic investment risks. The paper offers an illustrative theory of change to facilitate a dialogue on the specific interventions needed to address these gender differentiated risks locally. It concludes that market transformation efforts for universal sustainable energy access must include targeted policy measures to ensure equal benefits to men and women entrepreneurs, and optimize the use of public resources to catalyze private investment and reduce poverty.

Keywords: decentralized renewable energy access, women entrepreneurs, investment barriers

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Infrastructure, Energy

Year: 2016

Citation:

Fraune, Cornelia. 2018. “A Gendered Perspective on Energy Transformation Processes.” In Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy and Natural Resources, edited by Andreas Goldthau, Michael F. Keating, and Caroline Kuzemko, 62–76. Cheltenham; Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Author: Cornelia Fraune

Abstract:

According to the energy system perspective, energy supply is not only a matter of societal resource endowment and technological skills, but also expresses the nexus of mode of production and living in a society. Therefore, energy transformations also affect the social distribution of resources and power within a society. In referring to feminist approaches of international political economy, a framework will be developed in order to analyse how gender relations and energy transformations are intertwined. By examining gender relations in the realm of renewable energy production, private energy consumption, and sustainable energy policy-making interdependencies between the gender regime and energy transformation processes will be revealed.

Topics: Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, Infrastructure, Energy

Year: 2018

Citation:

Pearl-Martinez, Rebecca. 2020. “Global Trends Impacting Gender Equality in Energy Access.” IDS Bulletin 51 (1): 7–26.

Author: Rebecca Pearl-Martinez

Abstract:

Achieving a just and equitable transition to a sustainable energy system will rest on efforts to address gender inequality. Women in developing countries are impacted by energy poverty in far greater numbers than men, and they do not have the same opportunities as men to take advantage of emerging opportunities that can help deliver energy access for marginalised populations. This article, geared to policymakers, brings attention to six global trends – decentralisation of energy services, affordability, mobile payments, women’s entrepreneurship, urbanisation, and humanitarian settings. Achieving energy access for all, as called for under Sustainable Development Goal 7, will require attention to the ways in which these trends drive or hamper gender equality in energy access.

Topics: Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Infrastructure, Energy

Year: 2020

Citation:

Stephens, Jennie C. 2020. Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Author: Jennie C. Stephens

Annotation:

Summary:
The climate crisis is a crisis of leadership. For too long too many leaders have prioritized corporate profits over the public good, exacerbating climate vulnerabilities while reinforcing economic and racial injustice. Transformation to a just, sustainable renewable-based society requires leaders who connect social justice to climate and energy. During the Trump era, connections among white supremacy; environmental destruction; and fossil fuel dependence have become more conspicuous. Many of the same leadership deficiencies that shaped the inadequate response in the United States to the coronavirus pandemic have also thwarted the US response to the climate crisis.  The inadequate and ineffective framing of climate change as a narrow, isolated, discrete problem to be “solved” by technical solutions is failing. The dominance of technocratic, white, male perspectives on climate and energy has inhibited investments in social change and social innovations. With new leadership and diverse voices, we can strengthen climate resilience, reduce racial and economic inequities, and promote social justice. In Diversifying Power, energy expert Jennie Stephens argues that the key to effectively addressing the climate crisis is diversifying leadership so that antiracist, feminist priorities are central.  All politics is now climate politics, so all policies, from housing to health, now have to integrate climate resilience and renewable energy. Stephens takes a closer look at climate and energy leadership related to job creation and economic justice, health and nutrition, housing and transportation. She looks at why we need to resist by investing in bold diverse leadership to curb the “the polluter elite.” We need to reclaim and restructure climate and energy systems so policies are explicitly linked to social, economic, and racial justice. (Summary from Island Press)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Growing the Squad                              

2. Resisting The Polluter Elite                                            

3. Jobs and Economic Justice                                            

4. Health, Well-Being, and Nutritious Food for All        

5. Clean Transportation for All                                                      

6. Housing for All                                                                  

7. Conclusion: Collective Power

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Gender, Health, Infrastructure, Energy, Transportation, Urban Planning, Justice, Race

Year: 2020

Citation:

Wang, Yiting, and Catherine Corson. 2015. “The Making of a ‘Charismatic’ Carbon Credit: Clean Cookstoves and ‘Uncooperative’ Women in Western Kenya.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 47 (10): 2064–79.

Authors: Yiting Wang, Catherine Corson

Abstract:

The Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change first legitimized state-to-state carbon trading in 1997 with the goal of cost-effectively reducing carbon emissions. Voluntary carbon markets for private trading have emerged since, often claimed by their proponents to pioneer innovative projects that reduce poverty as well as carbon emissions. We use the case of a cookstove project, financed by the carbon emissions reductions generated when rural Kenyan women switch from traditional to energy-efficient cookstoves, to illuminate the complex process through which ‘charismatic’ pro-poor carbon offsets are produced. We highlight the role of women's labor in creating the initial carbon emissions reductions, which then become tradable virtual commodities through a series of studies to measure and verify the associated carbon savings, as well as the signing of a contract that transfers the property rights to the verified savings from the stove user to an international nonprofit carbon credit developer. We argue that, while introducing some improvements in cooking time, smoke level, and labor, the improved cookstove carbon offset ultimately constitutes a gendered, ongoing accumulation by decarbonization that, by securing the means of future wealth that could be generated from the project for investors in the Global North, marginalizes rural Kenyan women.

Keywords: cookstoves, gender, carbon trading, foreign aid, Kenya

Topics: Development, Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Energy, International Law Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Kenya

Year: 2015

Citation:

Goh, Amelia H. X. 2012. “A Literature Review of the Gender-Differentiated Impacts of Climate Change on Women’s and Men’s Assets and Well-Being in Developing Countries.” CAPRi Working Paper 106, Washington, DC, International Food Policy Research Institute. 

Author: Amelia H. X. Goh

Abstract:

Climate change increasingly affects the livelihoods of people, and poor people experience especially negative impacts given their lack of capacity to prepare for and cope with the effects of a changing climate. Among poor people, women and men may experience these impacts differently. This review presents and tests two hypotheses on the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change on women and men in developing countries. The first hypothesis is that climate-related events affect men’s and women’s well-being and assets differently. The second hypothesis is that climate-related shocks affect women more negatively than men. With limited evidence from developing countries, this review shows that climate change affects women’s and men’s assets and well-being differently in six impact areas: (i) impacts related to agricultural production, (ii) food security, (iii) health, (iv) water and energy resources, (v) climate-induced migration and conflict, and (vi) climate-related natural disasters. In the literature reviewed, women seem to suffer more negative impacts of climate change in terms of their assets and well-being because of social and cultural norms regarding gender roles and their lack of access to and control of assets, although there are some exceptions. Empirical evidence in this area is limited, patchy, varied, and highly contextual in nature, which makes it difficult to draw strong conclusions. Findings here are indicative of the complexities in the field of gender and climate change, and signal that multidisciplinary research is needed to further enhance the knowledge base on the differential climate impacts on women’s and men’s assets and well-being in agricultural and rural settings, and to understand what mechanisms work best to help women and men in poor communities become more climate resilient.

Keywords: climate change, gender, assets, impacts, developing countries

Topics: Agriculture, Displacement & Migration, Climate Displacement, Economies, Poverty, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Gender Roles, Health, Infrastructure, Energy, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security

Year: 2012

Citation:

Stock, Ryan, and Trevor Birkenholtz. 2020. “Photons vs. Firewood: Female (Dis)Empowerment by Solar Power in India.” Gender, Place and Culture 27 (11): 1628-51.

Authors: Ryan Stock, Trevor Birkenholtz

Abstract:

Renewable energy transitions are accelerating in the Global South. Yet many large-scale renewable energy infrastructures are developed on public lands with unknown impacts on commons access and usage. A prime example of this is the Gujarat Solar Park (GSP) in India, which is one of the world’s largest solar photovoltaic facilities. The GSP is situated on 2,669 acres of previously common property, which has historically been used by female pastoralists for firewood collection. In this paper, we examine the following research questions: How do gender and caste power shape natural resource access in this region?; Does the Gujarat Solar Park exacerbate already gendered social-economic-political asymmetries? Our study utilizes a feminist political ecology framework to analyze the social dimensions of the GSP, drawing on recent work in this vein that uses a postcolonial and intersectional approach to examine the production of social difference through the spatial processes and political economy of solar energy generation. We find that the enclosure of public ‘wastelands’ to develop the Gujarat Solar Park has dispossessed resource-dependent women of access to firewood and grazing lands. This spatial dislocation is reinforcing asymmetrical social power relations at the village scale. Intersectional subject-positions are (re)produced vis-à-vis the exclusion of access to firewood in the land enclosed for the solar park. Affected women embody this dispossession through inter- and intra-village emotional geographies that cut across caste, class and gender boundaries.

Topics: Caste, Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Energy, Intersectionality Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020