Livelihoods

Trade, Gender and Post-War Recovery, Part Two: Visioning Feminist Trade Alternatives for Sustainable Peace

Nancy Kachingwe

Nandini Chami

Diyana Yahaya

April 27, 2022

Online via Zoom

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This webinar series is co-sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Boston's Anthropology Department; Asian Studies Department; Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance; Economics Department; History Department; The Honors College; Latino Studies Program; School for Global Inclusion and Social Development; School for the Environment; Sociology Department; and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department and Human Rights Minor.

‘‘Si No Comemos Tortilla, No Vivimos:’’ Women, Climate Change, and Food Security in Central Mexico

Citation:

Bee, Beth A. 2014. "'Si No Comemos Tortilla, No Vivimos:' Women, Climate Change, and Food Security in Central Mexico." Agriculture & Human Values 30: 607–620.

Author: Beth A. Bee

Abstract:

In recent years, it has become clear that food security is intimately related to complex environmental, social, political, and economic issues. Even though several studies document the impact of climate on food production and agriculture, a growing segment of research examines how climate change impacts food systems and associated livelihoods. Furthermore, while women play a crucial role in providing food security for their families, little research exists that examines the nexus among gender relations, climate change, and household food security. This study investigates these relationships by asking: (1) how is the production and reproduction of knowledge about food security and climate change shaped by gender and lived experience, and (2) how does this knowledge influence attitudes and strategies for maintaining food security in a changing climate? Drawing on the results of research in two communities in central Mexico, I argue that women’s perceptions of and strategies for maintaining food security are derived from their socio-political, environmental, and economic contexts. This study contributes to both the growing literature on the gender dynamics of climate change, as well as debates about the role of bioengineered seeds in helping farmers to adapt to a changing climate.

Keywords: food security, gender, climate change, adaptive capacity, mexico, Knowledge

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Roles, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2014

The Dead, the Living, and the Sacred: Patsy Mink, Antimilitarism, and Reimagining the Pacific World

Citation:

Wu, Judy Tzu-Chun. 2019. “The Dead, the Living, and the Sacred: Patsy Mink, Antimilitarism, and Reimagining the Pacific World.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 18 (2): 304–31.

Author: Judy Tzu-Chun Wu

Abstract:

This article focuses on the antinuclear and antimilitarism politics of Patsy Takemoto Mink (1927–2002), the first Japanese American female lawyer in Hawai'i, the first woman of color to become a U.S. congressional representative, and the namesake for Title IX. During the late 1960s and 1970s, Mink challenged the use of the Pacific lands, waters, and peoples as sites of military experimentation, subject to nuclear and chemical testing as well as war games. Mink's political worldview, shaped by her experiences and understanding of the interconnectedness between human and nonhuman life as well as water and land, reflected a Pacific World sensibility. She worked with, but also articulated political priorities that differed from, indigenous peoples of the Pacific. Focusing on these connected yet divergent Pacific imaginaries provides an opportunity to explore the significance of these antimilitarism campaigns for the study of transnational feminisms as well as Asian American and Pacific Islander studies. First, the protests of Mink and Native Hawaiian activists against U.S. militarism in the Pacific represented gendered critiques of U.S. empire, although in different ways. Second, Mink's advocacy via political liberalism provided opportunities for coalition formation yet also constrained the range of her gendered arguments and limited possible solutions beyond the U.S. polity. Third, the coalitional possibilities and incommensurabilities reveal the points of convergence and divergence between Asian American demands for full inclusion and Pacific Islander calls for decolonization and sovereignty. (Abstract from original source)

Keywords: Patsy Takemoto Mink, Cold War militarism, Pacific World, liberalism, settler colonialism

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Gender, Gender Analysis, Women, Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Political Participation, Rights, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Regions: Oceania Countries: United States of America

Year: 2019

Disproportionate Impacts of Radiation Exposure on Women, Children, and Pregnancy: Taking Back Our Narrative

Citation:

Folkers, Cynthia. 2021. “Disproportionate Impacts of Radiation Exposure on Women, Children, and Pregnancy: Taking Back Our Narrative.” Journal of the History of Biology 54: 31–66.

Author: Cynthia Folkers

Abstract:

Narratives surrounding ionizing radiation have often minimized radioactivity’s impact on the health of human and non-human animals and the natural environment. Many Cold War research policies, practices, and interpretations drove nuclear technology forward by institutionally obscuring empirical evidence of radiation’s disproportionate and low-dose harm—a legacy we still confront. Women, children, and pregnancy development are particularly sensitive to exposure from radioactivity, sufering more damage per dose than adult males, even down to small doses, making low doses a cornerstone of concern. Evidence of compounding generational damage could indicate increased sensitivity through heritable impact. This essay examines the existing empirical evidence demonstrating these sensitivities, and how research institutions and regulatory authorities have devalued them, willingly sacrifcing health in the service of maintaining and expanding nuclear technology (Nadesan 2019). Radiation’s disproportionate impacts should now be the research and policy focus, as society is poised to make crucial and long-lasting decisions regarding climate change mitigation and future energy sources (Brown 2019b).

Topics: Age, Youth, Gender, Health, Reproductive Health, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Year: 2021

Gender, Seeds, and Biodiversity

Citation:

Sachs, Carolyn E. 1997. “Gender, Seeds, and Biodiversity.” In Women Working In The Environment. New York: Routledge.

Author: Carolyn E. Sachs

Abstract:

All over the world, declining biodiversity threatens people's livelihoods, cultures, and standards of living. Degradation of the environment, destruction of natural habitats, and changes in cultural strategies for survival contribute to the increasing loss of biodiversity and also to the impoverishment of women (Abramovitz, 1994; Shiva, 1995). Declines in biological resources often result in declining standards of living for many people in the world, especially women and the poor (Abramovitz, 1994 ). Women, in many cultural contexts, rely on diverse biological resources to provide food, clothing, housing, and other needs for their families. As access to these resources declines through environmental degradation or inequitable distribution of resources between men and women, women's workloads often increase and their ability to provide food for their families decreases. As a result of gender divisions of labor, women and men have different knowledge about plants and other biological resources (Sachs, 1996). Efforts to preserve biodiversity have generally neglected women's work and knowledge about crops and other natural resources. This chapter focuses on women's knowledge and efforts to maintain crop diversity. First, we discuss reasons for the decline in crop genetic diversity; then, we focus on two studies of seed saving in the United States and the Peruvian Andes.

Topics: Agriculture, Economies, Gender, Men, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Americas, North America, South America Countries: Peru, United States of America

Year: 1997

Water is Life: Women's Human Rights in National and Local Water Governance in Southern and Eastern Africa

Citation:

Hellum, Anne, Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Barbara van Koppen, eds. 2015. Water Is Life: Women’s Human Rights in National and Local Water Governance in Southern and Eastern Africa. Weaver Press. 

Authors: Anne Hellum, Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Barbara van Koppen

Abstract:

This book approaches water and sanitation as an African gender and human rights issue. Empirical case studies from Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe show how coexisting international, national and local regulations of water and sanitation respond to the ways in which different groups of rural and urban women gain access to water for personal, domestic and livelihood purposes. The authors, who are lawyers, sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists, explore how women cope in contexts where they lack secure rights, and participation in water governance institutions, formal and informal. The research shows how women – as producers of family food - rely on water from multiple sources that are governed by community based norms and institutions which recognize the right to water for livelihood. How these 'common pool water resources' - due to protection gaps in both international and national law - are threatened by large-scale development and commercialization initiatives, facilitated through national permit systems, is a key concern. The studies demonstrate that existing water governance structures lack mechanisms which make them accountable to poor and vulnerable waters users on the ground, most importantly women. Our findings thus underscore the need to intensify measures to hold states accountable, not just in water services provision, but in assuring the basic human right to clean drinking water and sanitation; and also to protect water for livelihoods.

Annotation:

Table of Contents 
 
Part I Introduction
1. The Human Right to Water and Sanitation in a Legal Pluralist Landscape: Perspectives of Southern and Eastern African Women
 
2. Turning the Tide: Engendering the Human Right to Water and Sanitation 
Anne Hellum, Ingunn Ikdahl and Patricia Kameri-Mbote
 
Part II Kenya
3. Human Rights, Gender and Water in Kenya: Law, Prospects and Challenges 
Patricia Kameri-Mbote and Francis Kariuki
 
4. Not so Rosy: Farm Workers’ Human Right to Water in the Lake Naivasha Basin 
Patricia Kameri-Mbote and Edna Odhiambo
 
5. Watered Down: Gender and the Human Right to Water and Reasonable Sanitation in Mathare, Nairobi 
Celestine Nyamu Musembi
 
6. Gender Dimensions of Customary Water Resource Governance: Marakwet Case Study 
Elizabeth Gachenga
 
Part III Malawi 
7. The Political Economy of the Human Right to Water and Women in Malawi 
Ngeyi Ruth Kanyongolo, Timothy Chirwa, Asiyati Chiweza and Michael Chasukwa
 
8. Women’s Right to Water and Participation in Practice: Insights from Urban Local Water Governance Systems 
Asiyati Lorraine Chiweza, Ngeyi Ruth Kanyongolo, Michael Chasukwa and Timothy Chirwa
 
9. Primary Actors on the Back Seat: Gender, Human Rights and Rural Water Governance in Malawi – Lessons from Mpemba and Chileka 
 
Part IV Zimbabwe
10. Governance, Gender Equality and the Right to Water and Sanitation in Zimbabwe: Contested Norms and Institutions in an Unstable Economic and Political Terrain 
Anne Hellum, Bill Derman, Ellen Sithole and Elizabeth Rutsate
 
11. Zimbabwe’s Urban Water Crisis and its Implications for Different Women: Emerging Norms and Practices in Harare’s High Density Suburbs 
Anne Hellum, Ellen Sithole, Bill Derman, Lindiwe Mangwanya and Elizabeth Rutsate
 
12. Securing Rural Women’s Land and Water Rights: Lessons from Domboshawa Communal Land 
Anne Hellum, Bill Derman, Lindiwe Mangwanya and Elizabeth Rutsate
 
13. A Hidden Presence: Women Farm Workers Right to Water and Sanitation in the Aftermath of the Fast Track Land Reform 
Elizabeth Rutsate, Bill Derman and Anne Hellum
 
Part V South Africa 
14. Fixing the Leaks in Women’s Human Rights to Water: Lessons from South Africa 
Barbara van Koppen, Bill Derman, Barbara Schreiner, Ebenezer Durojaye and Ngcime Mweso
 
15. Gender-Equality in Statutory Water Law: the Case of Priority General Authorizations in South Africa 
Barbara van Koppen and Barbara Schreiner
 
16. Gender, Rights, and the Politics of Productivity The Case of the Flag Boshielo Irrigation Scheme, South Africa 
Barbara van Koppen, Barbara Tapela and Everisto Mapedza
 

Topics: Class, Governance, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Year: 2015

‘You Can’t Have Our Land’: Land Grabbing and the Feminization of Resistance in Aloguinsan, Cebu

Citation:

Ocasiones, Leny G. 2018. “‘You Can’t Have Our Land’: Land Grabbing and the Feminization of Resistance in Aloguinsan, Cebu.” Philippine Sociological Review 66: 35–60.

Author: Leny G. Ocasiones

Abstract:

Land grabbing has been present in the Philippines for the past decades. It occurs when local communities and individuals lose access to land that they previously used, thus threatening their lives and livelihood. Civil society organizations that are skeptical toward the growing trend of large-scale acquisitions by foreign corporations, however, argue that land grabbing can be committed by domestic actors and sometimes in cooperation with foreign actors. Land grabbing raises important questions about the welfare, livelihood, and land security of farmers in the Philippines. Using archival sources, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions, this study investigates women's experiences of land grabbing and resistance among farmers of Aloguinsan, Cebu. This study reveals that land grabbing has profound impacts on the lives of the farmers and that women farmers are affected differently than men because women are generally considered a vulnerable group. Further, land grabbing generated fierce resistance from farmers, especially from women who developed creative ways to defend their lives, land and community. The study concludes that the resistance put up by the Aloguinsan farmers is gendered, and serves as a case of the feminization of resistance.

Keywords: land grabbing, feminization, resistance, women

Topics: Civil Society, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2018

Land Grabbing and the Gendered Livelihood Experience of Smallholder Farmers in Northern Ghana: Through a Human Development and Capability Lens

Citation:

Agbley, Gideon Kofi. 2019. "Land Grabbing and the Gendered Livelihood Experience of Smallholder Farmers in Northern Ghana: Through a Human Development and Capability Lens." Ghana Journal of Development Studies 16 (1): 155-80.

 

Author: Gideon Kofi Agbley

Abstract:

The phenomenon of land grabbing in developing countries has led to worsening livelihood choices for smallholder farmers who depended on communal lands for subsistence. While previous analyses of land grabs were framed in a paradigm that emphasised outcomes, this study is framed within a human development approach which places emphasis on both outcomes and procedural concerns. The procedural concerns are in relation to representation prior to and during negotiations for land acquisitions. The study is based on analysis of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to assess BioFuel Africa Limited’s investments in two communities in northern Ghana. Results show the company is no longer operating its jatropha (jatropha curcas) plantation and therefore the inability to provide jobs promised. Meanwhile the clearing of large contiguous tracts of lands have had devastating impacts on the livelihoods of women and men. The study revealed that there was poor participation of women in all stages and processes of the land acquisitions for the project, and that the land acquirer had failed to fully implement the procedural concerns of equity, efficiency, participation and sustainability in the acquisitions of lands for the project. It is recommended that large-scale land deals should be conditioned on proper disposal and utilization of lands within specified time frames, failure for which land is reverted to original use.

 

Keywords: land grabs, equity, efficiency, participation, sustainability

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2019

Working Wives: Gender, Labour and Land Commercialization in Ratanakiri, Cambodia

Citation:

Joshi, Saba. 2020. “Working Wives: Gender, Labour and Land Commercialization in Ratanakiri, Cambodia.” Globalizations 17 (1): 1–15.

Author: Saba Joshi

Abstract:

In Ratanakiri province, home to a large share of Cambodia's indigenous minorities, land commercialization involving large-scale land transfers and in-migration has led to shrinking access to land for indigenous households. Drawing on qualitative interviews and a household survey conducted in Ratanakiri, this paper explores the links between social reproduction and agrarian production in the current phase of agrarian transition through the lens of everyday gendered experiences. It argues that while wage labour is becoming an essential component of agrarian livelihoods for land-poor indigenous households, gendered hierarchies mediate access to local wage labour opportunities due to the incompatibilities between care work and paid labour. This paper contributes to the literature by exposing locally-specific processes through which gender- differentiated impacts are produced under multiple modes of dispossession. It also illuminates the links between dispossession and social reproduction and the tensions between capitalist accumulation and care activities in agrarian trajectories following land commercialization.

 

Keywords: Cambodia, land grabs, care labour, wage labour, indigenous peoples, gender

Topics: Agriculture, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Households, Indigenous, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Cambodia

Year: 2020

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