United States of America

Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries: Work, Public Policy and Action

Citation:

Cohen, Marjorie Griffin. 2017. Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries: Work, Public Policy and Action. Abingdon: Routledge.

Author: Marjorie Griffin Cohen

Annotation:

Summary:
"Climate change is at the forefront of ideas about public policy, the economy and labour issues. However, the gendered dimensions of climate change and the public policy issues associated with it in wealthy nations are much less understood.
 
Climate Change and Gender in Rich Countries covers a wide range of issues dealing with work and working life. The book demonstrates the gendered distinctions in both experiences of climate change and the ways that public policy deals with it. The book draws on case studies from the UK, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Spain and the US to address key issues such as: how gendered distinctions affect the most vulnerable; paid and unpaid work; and activism on climate change. It is argued that including gender as part of the analysis will lead to more equitable and stronger societies as solutions to climate change advance.
 
This volume will be of great relevance to students, scholars, trade unionists and international organisations with an interest in climate change, gender, public policy and environmental studies". (Summary from Routledge)
 
Table of Contents:
Part One: Context and Overview
1. Introduction: Why Gender Matters when Dealing with Climate Change 
Marjorie Griffin Cohen
 
2. Masculinities of Global Climate Change: Exploring Ecomodern, Industrial and Ecological Masculinity 
Martin Hultman & Jonas Anshelm
 
3. It’s Not Just the Numbers: Challenging Masculinist Working Practices in Climate Change Decision-Making in UK Government and Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations 
Susan Buckingham & Rakibe Kulcur
 
Part Two: Challenges for Paid and Unpaid Work
4. Women and Low Energy Construction in Europe: A New Opportunity? 
Linda Clarke
 
5. Renewable Inequity? Women’s Employment in Clean Energy in Industrialized, Emerging and Developing Economies 
Bipasha Baruah
 
6. UK Environmental and Trade Union Groups’ Struggles to Integrate Gender Issues into Climate Change Analysis and Activism 
Carl Mandy
 
7. Transporting Difference at Work: Taking Gendered Intersectionality Seriously in Climate Change Agendas 
Leonora Angeles
 
8. The US Example of Integrating Gender and Climate Change in Training: Response to the 2008–09 Recession 
Marjorie Griffin Cohen
 
Part Three: Vulnerability, Insecurity and Work
9. Gendered Outcomes in Post-Disaster Sites: Public Policy and Resource Distribution 
Margaret Alston
 
10. Climate Change, Traditional Roles, and Work– Interactions in the Inuit Nunangat 
Mike Kim
 
11. Towards Humane Jobs: Recognizing Gendered, Multispecies Intersections and Possibilities 
Kendra Coulter
 
Part Four: Rural and Resource Communities
 
12. Maybe Tomorrow Will Be Better: Gender and Farm Work in a Changing Climate 
Amber Fletcher
 
13. Understanding the Gender Labours of Adaptation to Climate Change in Forest-Based Communities Through Different Models of Analysis 
Maureen G. Reed
 
14. The Complex Impacts of Intensive Resource Extraction on Women, Children and Aboriginal Peoples: Towards Contextually-Informed Approaches to Climate Change and Health 
Maya K Gislason, Chris Buse, Shayna Dolan, Margot W Parkes, Jemma Tosh, Bob Woollard
 
Part Five: Public Policy and Activism
15. How a Gendered Understanding of Climate Change Can Help Shape Canadian Climate Policy 
Nathalie Chalifour
 
16. The Integration of Gender in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Québec: Silos and Possibilities 
Annie Rochette
 
17. A Gendered Analysis of Housing Policies in the Context of Climate Change: A Comparison of Canada and Spain 
Penny Gurstein & Sara Ortiz Escalante
 
18. Canadian Indigenous Female Leadership and Political Agency on Climate Change 
Patricia E. Perkins
 
19. Using Information about Gender and Climate Change to Inform Green Economic Policies 
Marjorie Griffin Cohen

 

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Livelihoods Regions: Americas, North America, Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Oceania Countries: Australia, Canada, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America

Year: 2017

Quality Employment for Women in the Green Economy

Citation:

Hegewisch, Ariane, Jeff Hayes, Tonia Bui, and Anlan Zhang. 2013. Quality Employment for Women in the Green Economy. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women's Policy Research.

Authors: Ariane Hegewisch, Jeff Hayes, Tonia Bui, Anlan Zhang

Annotation:

Summary:
Investments in the green economy have many potential benefits such as reduced pollution, enhanced energy security, and increased competitiveness and export earnings for the U.S. economy. Such investments, particularly in energy conservation, also have the potential to create jobs with family-sustaining wages that do not require college degrees. Given women’s greater propensity to earn less than family-sustaining wages, this characteristic of green jobs is, arguably, particularly relevant to women. This report provides the first detailed estimates of women’s employment in the green economy, state-by-state, by industry, and by occupation. It finds that women working in the green economy have higher earnings than other women and that the gender wage gap in green jobs is lower than in the economy overall. Women are, however, much less likely than men to work in green jobs and are particularly underrepresented in the occupations that are predicted to grow most strongly in the green sector. The report suggests that state and national workforce development policies need to explicitly address women’s underrepresentation in green growth occupations to ensure that investment in the green economy equally benefits women’s and men’s economic prospects.
 
Table of Contents:
1. Methodology: Estimating the Gender Distribution of Green Jobs
 
2. Findings: The Gender and Race/Ethnic Distribution of Green Jobs
 
3. Findings: Growth Projections for the Green Economy
 
4. Conclusion: Gender Segregation, Green Jobs, and Pathways Into Careers with Family-Sustaining Wages for Women

Topics: Economies, Ecological Economics, Environment, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods, Race Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2013

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

Citation:

Bigio, Jamille and Rachel Vogelstein. 2020. Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.

Authors: Jamille Bigio, Rachel Vogelstein

Annotation:

Summary:
A growing body of research definitively links gender equality with global prosperity and security. Unlocking the potential of half the population is not just a moral obligation—it is an economic and security imperative. At a time when resources are limited, investing in women and girls is a proven way to bolster good governance, economic growth, community health, and peace and stability. Nations seeking to advance national security, maximize the utility of foreign aid, and bolster stable and democratic partners should prioritize women’s advancement.
 
In recent years, a growing number of countries have begun to institutionalize gender equality and women’s empowerment as a foreign policy priority in the areas of diplomacy, defense, aid, and trade. Nations are adopting action plans, creating funds, appointing envoys, and setting aid targets to advance gender equality through development cooperation, diplomatic and security activities, and trade agreements. The most comprehensive effort is the “feminist foreign policy” first articulated by Sweden in 2014—a designation since adopted by Canada in 2017, France in 2019, and Mexico in 2020—which promises greater commitment to gender equality abroad in service of national security at home.
 
Incorporating lessons from the gender mainstreaming approaches pursued by other countries, the U.S. government should take a more systematic and well-resourced approach to promoting gender equality in foreign policy. To strengthen prosperity and stability around the world, the U.S. government should launch a high-level White House council to elevate and coordinate efforts to advance gender equality, issue a government-wide strategy to promote this goal as a domestic and foreign policy priority, close the gender financing gap, and mainstream transparency and accountability on gender equality efforts into foreign policy initiatives. The United States should demonstrate genuine leadership, adopt strong policies, and provide sufficient resources that will not only improve the lives of women and girls but also strengthen the stability and prosperity of entire economies and nations. These steps will help the United States draw on the benefits of women’s empowerment globally and thereby promote international security and global growth. (Summary from Council on Foreign Relations)

Topics: Economies, Feminisms, Gender, Feminist Foreign Policy, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Health, Peace and Security, Security Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2020

Toward a Feminist Foreign Policy in the United States

Citation:

Thompson, Lyric, Gayatri Patel, Gawain Kripke, and Megan O’Donnell. 2020. Toward a Feminist Foreign Policy in the United States. Washington, DC: International Center for Research on Women.

Authors: Lyric Thompson, Gayatri Patel, Gawain Kripke, Megan O'Donnell

Annotation:

Summary:
Feminist foreign policy is the most recent policy innovation aiming for a transformative and rights-based approach across all auspices of a nation’s foreign policy. Following formal announcements of feminist foreign policies in a number of countries, starting with the launch of Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy in 2014, followed by a Canadian Feminist Foreign Assistance Policy in 2017, announcements by France and Luxembourg in 2019 and, most recently, the launch of a Mexican Feminist Foreign Policy in January 2020, the time has come to consider what approach the United States could take.
 
In August 2019, a group of U.S. foreign policy experts and advocates for global gender equality came together over the course of three days to sketch out an initial draft of a U.S. feminist foreign policy. This discussion benefited from a research review of other countries’ feminist foreign policies, as well as insights gathered through a series of global consultations with more than 100 feminist activists from over 40 countries as to what a global template or gold standard for feminist foreign policy should entail. Through months of extensive consultation, the group gathered new insights on topics that had been omitted or underdeveloped at the time of drafting: humanitarian assistance, immigration policy, nuclear policy and points of intersection between feminist agendas at home and abroad.
 
In this 25th anniversary year of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and its resulting Declaration and Platform for Action, this paper reflects the final product of that consultative process: a vision towards the highest standard of U.S. foreign policy that promotes overarching goals of gender equality, human rights, peace and environmental integrity, while prioritizing the articulation of concrete recommendations. It includes a proposed definition, key principles and policy recommendations that provide a visionary approach for a fundamentally different way of conducting foreign policy in a manner that places people and planet above profit and individual interest. (Summary from International Center for Research on Women)

Topics: Environment, Feminist Foreign Policy, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Humanitarian Assistance, Peace and Security, Rights, Human Rights Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2020

A Green New Deal for Social Work

Citation:

Bhuyan, Rupaleem, Stéphanie Wahab, and Yoosun Park. 2019. "A Green New Deal for Social Work." Affilia 34 (3): 289-94.

Authors: Rupaleem Bhuyan, Stephanie Wahab, Yoosun Park

Annotation:

Summary:
"In this editorial, we consider what climate action would mean for the social work profession. We first review some of the Green New Deal proposals in the United Kingdom, Canada, and in the United States that emerged in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. We then discuss scholarship from a growing contingent of scholars who outline environmental, sustainable, and ecological frameworks for social work research and practice. Drawing upon ecofeminist and decolonial praxis, we then consider the potential for what Malin and Ryder (2018) calls a “deeply intersectional” framework that addresses “intersecting forms of structural environmental injustice and dominant ideologies that operate as classist, racist, sexist, nativist, ableist, homophobic, and anthropocentric matrices of domination” (p. 1). Whether or not the Green New Deal proposals are politically feasible amid the rise of Trump-styled right-wing populism, the urgency to address climate change compels social work practitioners, educators, and researchers to embrace Grace Lee Bogg’s suggestion “not to continue in the same old way” but to embrace a vision of social work that is committed to restoring human well-being and the natural world" (Bhuyan et al 2019, 290).

Topics: Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Intersectionality, Livelihoods, Race, Sexuality Regions: Americas, North America, Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America

Year: 2019

Petro-Masculinity and Climate Change Denial Among White, Politically Conservative American Males

Citation:

Nelson, Joshua. 2020. "Petro‐Masculinity and Climate Change Denial among White, Politically Conservative American Males." International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 17 (4): 282-95.

Author: Joshua Nelson

Abstract:

White, politically conservative males in the United States have been widely found to maintain petro-masculine attitudes that include aspects of racism, misogyny, and climate change denial. These beliefs and their associated behaviors, including climate destructiveness, can be conceptualized as compensatory reactions to modern-day racial, gender, and climate-related anxieties that are experienced as threats to traditional white male privilege and power. They then manifest as and energize authoritarian desires and their associated sociopolitical movements, including the current Republican effort to Make American Great Again. This paper utilizes psychoanalytic concepts concerning individual and large-group identity, group psychodynamics and processes, and the intergenerational transmission of idealized myth and fantasy to further elucidate and expand upon these complex phenomena. It then suggests specific strategies for disentangling the strong links between white hegemonic masculinity, fossil fuel use, and climate change denial, thus opening doors to alternative, non climate-destructive yet still empowering notions of individual, large-group, and national identity that are, instead, based in communal concern and climate care.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Race Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2020

Ecomodern Masculinity, Energy Security, and Green Consumerism: the Rise of Biofuels in the United States

Citation:

Dockstader, Sue, and Shannon Elizabeth Bell. 2020. "Ecomodern Masculinity, Energy Security, and Green Consumerism: the Rise of Biofuels in the United States." Critical Sociology 46 (4-5): 643-60.

Authors: Sue Dockstader, Shannon Elizabeth Bell

Abstract:

Through a case study of a major biofuel company in the United States, we seek to uncover how producers and consumers promote biofuels as a solution to climate change, despite considerable evidence demonstrating that biofuels are socially and environmentally destructive. Analysis of the company’s marketing materials and interviews with the owner and customers reveals that a primary way the company puts a green spin on biofuels is the deployment of “ecomodern masculinity.” This hybrid masculinity invokes a particular class-based environmentalism that positions biofuels as the ethical choice of good men concerned about the environment. This gendered ideology embraces a variant of Ecological Modernization that strategically adopts the appearance of environmental care while promoting the American values of energy security and green consumerism. We argue that this gendered repackaging of biofuels bolsters existing social inequalities, safeguards capital accumulation, and inhibits the systemic changes needed to address the climate crisis.

Keywords: climate change, biofuels, masculinities, green consumerism, energy security, capitalism, Marxism, sociology

Topics: Class, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Masculinity/ies Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2019

Men and Nature: Hegemonic Masculinities and Environmental Change

Citation:

MacGregor, Sherilyn, and Nicole Seymour, eds. 2017. “Men and Nature: Hegemonic Masculinities and Environmental Change.” RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society (4), 1-93.

Authors: Sherilyn MacGregor, Nicole Seymour

Annotation:

Summary:
Drawing on ecofeminist theory, environmental politics, and queer theory and ecology, this volume sheds light on the connections between masculinities and environmental change. The essays in this collection examine how hegemonic masculinities are performed and how they are reproduced under conditions of climate change, often perpetuating racial and gender inequalities and unequal power relations. The contributors reveal the making and negotiating of masculinities in very different cultural and economic settings, from central Africa to Central America, to the USA and Japan. Together, these scholars, academics, artists, and activists explore how masculine roles, identities, and practices shape human relationships with the more-than-human world. (Summary from Environment & Society Portal)
 
Table of Contents:
Foreword: Masculinities in the Sociocene
Raewyn Connell
 
Introduction
Sherilyn MacGregor and Nicole Seymour
 
1. Representing Disaster with Resignation and Nostalgia: Japanese Men’s Responses to the 2011 Earthquake
Naoki Kambe
 
2. Excuse Us, While We Fix the Sky: WEIRD Supermen and Climate Engineering
Jim Fleming
 
3. Of Storms, Floods, and Flying Sharks: The Extreme Weather Hero in Contemporary American Culture
Susanne Leikam
 
4. Masculinity, Work, and the Industrial Forest in the US Pacific Northwest
Erik Loomis
 
5. Every Day Like Today: Learning How to Be a Man in Love (An Excerpt from the Manuscript)
Alex Carr Johnson
 
6. Inventing Bushcraft: Masculinity, Technology, and Environment in Central Africa, ca. 750–1250
Kathryn M. de Luna
 
7. “The Love of the Chase Is an Inherent Delight in Man”: Hunting and Masculine Emotions in the Victorian Zoologist’s Travel Memoir
Will Abberley
 
8. Rural Masculinities in Tension: Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation in Nicaragua
Noémi Gonda
 
9. Taking Up Space: Men, Masculinity, and the Student Climate Movement
Jody Chan and Joe Curnow
 
10. Boys Will Be Boys (An Art Installation: Staged Wilderness and Male Dreams)
Nicola von Thurn

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Race, Sexuality Regions: Africa, Central Africa, Americas, Central America, North America, Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, Nicaragua, United States of America

Year: 2017

Take Back the Future: Global Feminisms and the Coming Crisis of the Beijing Settlement

Citation:

Ergas, Yasmine. 2019. "Take Back the Future: Global Feminisms and the Coming Crisis of the Beijing Settlement." Journal of International Affairs 72 (2): 19-36

Author: Yasmine Ergas

Annotation:

Summary:
"In April 2019, the United States threatened to use its veto in the UN Security Council (UNSC). That was not an unusual move: the Permanent Five members of the UNSC often exercise their right to block a United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR). But what was striking in this case was the content of the resolution against which the US felt both compelled and legitimated to invoke what is, in effect, the Council’s “nuclear option.” Did the draft Resolution introduced by Germany—a US ally—threaten U.S. national security? Did it undermine a friendly nation? In fact, Germany proposed to do neither. Rather, it sought to establish a working group within the UNSC on sexual violence in conflict, and generally strengthen the Council’s monitoring of related processes. Why, then, did the US object? As importantly, why did feminist groups also voice concern about the German initiative? While further research is needed to answer these questions, this essay views the U.S. position on Germany’s draft resolution as an expression of the stance taken by the U.S. administration and other states toward what one could term the “Beijing Settlement,” the general, albeit always contested, consensus rhetorically encapsulated in the slogan that “women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights,” which emerged from the fourth world conference on women in 1995. The U.S. administration’s stance is reflective of a broad backlash against gender-related rights, including both women’s rights generally and all persons’ rights related to sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sexual characteristics" (Ergas 2019, 19).

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, International Organizations, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexuality, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Americas, North America, Europe, Central Europe Countries: Germany, United States of America

Year: 2019

Leading the Operationalisation of WPS

Citation:

Hutchinson, Susan. 2018. "Leading the Operationalisation of WPS." Security Challenges 14 (2): 124-43.

Author: Susan Hutchinson

Annotation:

Summary:
"This paper considers how an intervening security force can implement the relevant components of the suite of United Nations Security Council resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). The analytical framework of the paper is a generic operational cycle comprised of preplanning, planning, conduct, and transition. Specific tasks identified in the resolutions are organised in this generic operational cycle. The tasks are those commonly led by security forces, or directed by government, and include: conflict analysis or intelligence; deliberate planning; force structure; population protection; female engagement; support to the rule of law; security sector reform; and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration. This paper focuses on the experiences of the Australian Defence Force, with additional examples from militaries of Canada, Ireland, Sweden and the United States as well as organisational experiences from NATO and the United Nations. The paper draws on operations including, but not limited to, in Afghanistan, Rwanda, Yugoslavia and East Timor. Overall, the paper makes a unique contribution to the military operationalisation of the WPS agenda" (Hutchinson 2018, 124).

Topics: Armed Conflict, DDR, Gender, Women, Governance, International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Security, Security Sector Reform, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Americas, North America, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Oceania Countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Rwanda, Sweden, Timor-Leste, United States of America, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2018

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