Gender Balance

Citation:

Khoza, Sizwile, Dewald van Niekerk, and Livhuwani Nemakonde. 2021. “Rethinking Climate-Smart Agriculture Adoption for Resilience-Building Among Smallholder Farmers: Gender-Sensitive Adoption Framework.” In African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation, edited by Walter Leal Filho, Nicholas Ogugu, Lydia Adelake, Izael da Silva, 1-22. Cham: Springer Nature. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Sizwile Khoza, Dewald van Niekerk, Livhuwani Nemakonde

Abstract:

This study identifies the need for holistic understanding of gender-differentiated climate-smart agriculture (CSA) adoption by smallholder farmers who are at the frontline of climate-related hazards and disasters in Africa. CSA adoption is predominantly informed by a parochial linear approach to farmers’ decision-making processes. Resilience-building and adaptation, which forms the second pillar of CSA and can enhance understanding of the CSA adoption nuances at farmer level, often receives less attention in adoption investigations. To appreciate CSA adoption from a resilience perspective, this study focused on resilience-building based on the interlinkage between CSA and disaster risk reduction and applied a resilience perspective in a gendered approach to CSA adoption by smallholder farmers. Through primary data collected in an exploratory sequential mixed method design, the study presents a proposed normative gender-sensitive CSA adoption framework to guide CSA implementation strategies and policies. The framework is anchored in resilience thinking, and some of its key components include gender-sensitive CSA technology development, risk-informed decision-making by heterogeneous smallholder farmers, gender-sensitive enabling factors, resilience strategies, gender equitable and equal ownership, and control of and access to resilience capitals. The proposed framework can be used to improve CSA adoption by smallholder farmers by addressing gendered vulnerability and inequality that influence low adoption. (Abstract from original source)

Keywords: climate-smart agriculture, disaster risk reduction, gender, adoption, resilience, framework

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Balance

Year: 2020

Citation:

Venturini, Gabriella. 2018. “Gender Perspective on Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights.” Edited by Jonathan L. Black-Branch and Dieter Fleck. In Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law IV: 99–115. The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press.

Author: Gabriella Venturini

Abstract:

Gender perspective is currently being mainstreamed in the context of security, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. Since gender is not just about women and girls but also relates to men and boys, gender perspective must be balanced and take into account the broad socio-cultural context as a whole. The adverse effects of nuclear detonations may impinge on the right to life and encroach upon a number of other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights among which the right to family life, health, education, property and housing. It has become apparent that the use and testing of nuclear weapons affect differently men and boys, women and girls, both physically and in the context of society, hindering their ability to fully exercise their basic human rights. Gender-aware assistance is needed to contribute reducing the adverse consequences of nuclear detonations for the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Gender perspective may help redirect debates concerning nuclear weapons towards a greater consideration of human factors, and ultimately reshape the strategies for security, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. Women’s engagement in the struggle for peace and disarmament is extremely relevant and should gain more influence, while involving more women in nuclear issues, at both national and international level, could enhance the non-proliferation and disarmament agenda. However, only if women and men are able to work together within governments, international organisations and civil society with full awareness of, and respect for, their respective roles, diversities and needs, effective and sustainable solutions on issues of nuclear disarmament can be achieved.

Keywords: gender, women, human rights, nuclear weapons, nuclear disarmament, nuclear tests

Topics: Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, Gender Balance, Gender Mainstreaming, Peace and Security, Political Participation, Rights, Human Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Year: 2018

Citation:

Kansake, Bruno Ayaga, Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo, and Nelson Kofi Dumakor-Dupey. 2021. “Creating a Gender-Inclusive Mining Industry: Uncovering the Challenges of Female Mining Stakeholders.” Resources Policy 70 (March). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101962.

Authors: Bruno Ayaga Kansake, Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo, Nelson Kofi Dumakor-Dupey

Abstract:

The global mining industry is male dominated. In the US, women constitute 13% of the mining workforce and 16% of mining related college programs. Similar trends exist globally. Efforts are being made by educational institutions, mining companies and professional organizations to attract women to the industry to achieve a gender inclusive industry. Such efforts have yielded minimal dividends partly due to insufficient reliable data on challenges confronting female miners. To provide empirical data to guide such efforts, we undertook a survey to understand the reasons for low female participation in the industry with participants from Ghana, USA, Ireland, Canada and other countries. The survey sought to identify challenges faced by female mining stakeholders and availability of support facilities for handling these challenges. Open and closed ended questionnaires were administered through online platforms. The responses were analyzed quantitatively using summary statistics and qualitatively using thematic analysis. About 38% of the respondents expressed satisfaction with their current jobs. The high dissatisfaction rate stems from lower salaries compared to male counterparts (29%), gender-based discrimination (53%), sexual harassment (37%) and sexual demands during hiring (17%). The key hindrances to a gender inclusive mining sector have been grouped into seven themes including discrimination, harassment, gender ideologies, and lack of support. We propose a four-way mind map model requiring commitment from government, companies, chambers of mines, and employees to ensure a gender inclusive mining industry.

Keywords: gender inclusion, diversity, mining industry, female stakeholders, discrimination, harassment

Topics: Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Africa, West Africa, Americas, North America, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Canada, Ghana, Ireland, United States of America

Year: 2021

Citation:

Pueyo, Ana, Marco Carreras, and Gisela Ngoo. 2020. “Exploring the Linkages between Energy, Gender, and Enterprise: Evidence from Tanzania.” World Development 128 (April): 104840.

Authors: Ana Pueyo, Marco Carreras, Gisela Ngoo

Abstract:

The productive use of electricity is essential for poverty reduction in newly electrified rural communities as well as for the financial sustainability of electricity suppliers. Because men and women assume different roles in the rural economy, the inclusion of gender concerns in interventions to promote productive uses of energy could improve development outcomes. Using a multi-methods approach, this study provides new evidence about how men and women use energy in rural micro-enterprises in Tanzania, and which benefits they obtain from it. In our research region, most businesses are owned by men and men-owned enterprises use electricity more frequently and intensely than women owned enterprises. The latter dominate the productive use of cooking fuels like charcoal and firewood. Electricity use is consistently associated with better business performance, but women entrepreneurs do not use it as much as men. There are multiple reasons for this gender imbalance. First, women enjoy less favourable starting conditions for enterprise creation due to poor access to finance, education, and other resources. Furthermore, women are required to balance care responsibilities with paid work and are subject to social norms that determine the acceptability of certain productive activities. Typically, female activities are less profitable and less mechanised than men’s. Consequently, in the absence of gender interventions, male entrepreneurs are more likely to benefit from the promotion of productive uses of electricity. The paper discusses several approaches to improve the gender equity of PUE interventions.

Keywords: energy, Gender, enterprise, Africa, Tanzania, electricity

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2020

Citation:

Amin, Sakib Bin, and Saanjaana Rahman. 2019. “Linkages Between Women and Energy Sector in Bangladesh.” In Energy Resources in Bangladesh: Trends and Contemporary Issues, 89–92. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Authors: Sakib Bin Amin, Saanjaana Rahman

Abstract:

Energy and women can be interrelated in many ways. The nature of the energy resource base, the features of the household, the effectiveness of energy policy and the position of women in the households can affect the relationship between energy and women. Women are usually deprived in Bangladesh regarding ownership and access to land, natural resources, credit, information and decision-making, at all levels. The energy industry is one of the most gender imbalanced sectors across the world. This hinders the development process of the developing and transition countries. Since the goal of Bangladesh government is to ensure everyone has access to sustainable energy, it is important for policymakers to understand the crucial and vital connection between gender and sustainable energy. To bridge the gender knowledge gap of macro energy projects, an initiative needs to be taken to unite mitigation practitioners to share optimum practices and insights into mainstreaming gender in the renewable energy sector. Incorporating gender perspectives into energy projects, policy and planning are essential to ensuring their effectiveness.

Keywords: Gender, women, rural, Bangladesh, development, cooking, renewable, policy, energy

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Gender Balance, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2019

Citation:

Singh, Avantika. 2020. "Introspecting Gender Concerns in National Action Plan for Climate Change of India." Indian Journal of Public Administration 66 (2): 179-90.

Author: Avantika Singh

Abstract:

The climate sceptics faltered at COP21 Paris summit after climate change was accepted as a real threat. An agreement across tables on historical ‘polluters pay’ principle shifted the burden of curbing the emissions on developed economies. However, gender concerns were conspicuous by their absence in all agreements. Mary Robinson, a UN envoy at the summit precisely pointed out that Paris climate summit’s gender imbalance with substantial male domination is inimical to taking appropriate action to save people from climate change risks. The research shows a poor track record with minimum or no presence of women representatives in any breakthrough deal and discussion. There is a tendency to avert their voices and concerns in any stamped deals done by governments and organisations at international, national, sub-national levels. Despite such gender omission, the policy discourse carries an inherent assumption of gender neutrality while designing adaptation and mitigation efforts in averting climate-related stress. This paper is an attempt to unravel such ungendered tendency, by a critical examination of the National Action Plan for Climate Change in India to bring out an apparent masculinisation of the policy discourse.

Keywords: climate change, adaptation, vulnerability, National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, International Organizations, Political Participation Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020

Citation:

Gay-Antaki, Miriam. 2020. "Feminist Geographies of Climate Change: Negotiating Gender at Climate Talks." Geoforum 115: 1-10.

Author: Miriam Gay-Antaki

Abstract:

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time and will have differential impacts across different geographies and social strata. The Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the most important international meeting surrounding climate change. The 2015 Paris climate talks reflected the global preoccupation around climate change, in that it was the first time 150 Heads of State ever gathered to discuss an issue. For geographers, the COPs are important sites to study because decisions around our environmental commons can perpetuate or contest socio-environmental narratives responsible for social and environmental inequalities. Increasingly, gender is being introduced into the climate debate in sites such as the COPs. Using qualitative methods, this paper delineates the mechanisms by which some meanings of gender like gender balance dominate over others like gender equality. My research illustrates how discourses of gender and climate change arise, are perpetuated, and materialized through climate policy. I use an intersectional lens to underscore the practices that perpetuate injustices, and explore the discourses that are the most popular at the COPs around gender and climate change, who perpetuates them, which narratives are mobilized, and which become invisible. I highlight how material practices at the COPs that construct polarized divisions of gender are accompanied by polarized divisions of space. Feminist geographies of climate change can challenge the global conversation about gender and climate change to form new coalitions and techniques to find just and equitable outcomes in the face of climate change.

Keywords: climate negotiations, gender balance, gender equality, strategic essentialism, intersectionality

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Intersectionality

Year: 2020

Citation:

Cook, Nathan J., Tara Grillos, and Krister P. Andersson. 2019. "Gender Quotas Increase the Equality and Effectiveness of Climate Policy Interventions." Nature Climate Change 9: 330-4.

Authors: Nathan J. Cook, Tara Grillos, Krister P. Andersson

Abstract:

Interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions strive to promote gender balance so that men and women have equal rights to participate in, and benefit from, decision-making about such interventions. One conventional way to achieve gender balance is to introduce gender quotas. Here we show that gender quotas make interventions more effective and lead to more equal sharing of intervention benefits. We conducted a randomized ‘lab’-in-the-field experiment in which 440 forest users from Indonesia, Peru and Tanzania made decisions about extraction and conservation in a forest common. We randomly assigned a gender quota to half of the participating groups, requiring that at least 50% of group members were women. Groups with the gender quota conserved more trees as a response to a ‘payment for ecosystem services’ intervention and shared the payment more equally. We attribute this effect to the gender composition of the group, not the presence of female leaders.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Quotas Regions: Africa, East Africa, Americas, South America, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Indonesia, Peru, Tanzania

Year: 2019

Citation:

Minor, Elizabeth. 2017. "Missing Voices: The Continuing Underrepresentation of Women in Multilateral Forums on Weapons and Disarmament." Arms Control Today 47 (10): 12-17.

Author: Elizabeth Minor

Annotation:

Summary:
"The recently adopted Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons contains much that is unprecedented for an international nuclear weapons agreement . . . This article looks at some of the patterns in women’s representation at international meetings of multilateral forums dealing with arms matters in recent years. The gender picture is currently far from balanced. Although this article looks at the numbers, achieving equal participation in multilateral forums is a matter that goes beyond securing parity in attendance and speakers at meetings. Further, successfully integrating gendered perspectives and improved attitudes to gender equality could be of greater significance than simple numerical equality to the outcomes these forums can generate for women and men affected worldwide by the weapons issues they discuss. These are all important issues for policymakers and civil society to consider in addressing gender and marginalization in multilateral forums" (Minor 2017, 12). 

Topics: Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Political Participation, Security, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Year: 2017

Citation:

Valji, Nahla, and Pablo Castillo. 2019. "The Importance of Gender Parity in the UN's Efforts on International Peace and Security." Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations 20 (2): 4-19.

Authors: Nahla Valji, Pablo Castillo

Keywords: equality, Gender, gender parity, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, United Nations, women, Africa

Annotation:

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Peace and Security, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes

Year: 2019