Gender Analysis

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Authors: Christine Agius, Anu Mundkur

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Keywords: conflict prevention, Foreign Policy White Paper, Australia, gender, foreign policy, women, peace and security (WPS)

Topics: Civil Society, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Peace and Security, Security Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2020

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Sunikka-Blank, Minna, Ronita Bardhan, and Anika Nasra Haque. 2019. “Gender, Domestic Energy and Design of Inclusive Low-Income Habitats: A Case of Slum Rehabilitation Housing in Mumbai, India.” Energy Research & Social Science 49 (March): 53–67.

Authors: Minna Sunikka-Blank, Ronita Bardhan, Anika Nasra Haque

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Women's involvement in decision-making in domestic energy remains an under-researched area, especially in the urban context. This research adopts a gendered perspective in exploring slum rehabilitation housing in India. Based on a household survey and a focus group discussion (FGD), women’s household and working practices are explored in interview narratives and systems analysis. The findings show that the relocation to slum re- habilitation housing (SRH) has radically changed women’s household routines (cooking, comfort, childrearing, working and entertainment practices) and that women are more affected by the relocation than men. Changed practices, poor design of SRH and lack of outdoor space have radically increased electricity use and living costs in all the surveyed households. The economic pressure forces women into lowly paid jobs or informal economy, creating a vicious circle where women’s time poverty further reduces their social capital and opportunities for self-development in terms of education or formal employment. A comparison of SRH typologies shows that building design has great influence both on gendered use of space and electricity use, advocating a courtyard typology. Further, interviews with policy-makers reveal a dis-juncture between the occupant realities and the policy objectives. The paper argues that gender equality can and should be influenced through energy and housing policies and offers a conceptual framework for inclusive SRH to address this dis-juncture.

Keywords: gender, domestic energy use, inequality, design, slum rehabilitation housing

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

Year: 2019

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Yaka, Özge. 2019. “Gender and Framing: Gender as a Main Determinant of Frame Variation in Turkey’s Anti-Hydropower Movement.” Women’s Studies International Forum 74 (May-June): 154–61.

Author: Özge Yaka

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Framing literature has so far failed to construct gender as an analytical category that shapes the ways in which we perceive, identify and act upon grievances. This article builds on the insights of feminist theory and employs the conceptual vocabulary of the social movement framing perspective in maintaining gender as a main parameter of framing processes. Drawing on ethnographic research on local community struggles against hydropower plants in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey, this article maintains the centrality of gender to framing processes. It analyzes the gendered difference between men’s macro-framings and women’s cultural and socio-ecological framings, which is rooted in their differing relationships with their immediate environment, as well as with the state and its institutions. The article maintains that the framings of women, which represent the immediacy of the environment, are more effective in gaining public support and shaping movement outcomes. In this sense, constructing gender as an important determinant of “frame variation” is essential not only to reveal women’s frames that are largely silenced through and within the mechanisms of social movement organization, but also to stress their centrality in shaping repertoires of contention, public reception and movement outcomes.

Keywords: gender, social movements, framing, Turkey, hydropower

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Analysis, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: MENA, Asia, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Turkey

Year: 2019

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Clancy, Joy, Fareeha Ummar, Indira Shakya, and Govind Kelkar. 2007. “Appropriate Gender-Analysis Tools for Unpacking the Gender-Energy-Poverty Nexus.” Gender & Development 15 (2): 241–57.

Authors: Joy Clancy, Fareeha Ummar, Indira Shakya, Govind Kelkar

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In rural and low-income urban households, energy is ‘women’s business’: women are responsible for providing energy, and use it for domestic chores and productive activities. However, the poor quality fuels many women use contribute to their time poverty, ill health, and level of drudgery. Despite these negative impacts, energy policy remains gender-blind. This can be attributed to the invisibility of women’s needs to energy planners, stemming from a lack of appropriate gender-analysis tools to meet the particular data requirements of the energy sector. This article analyses why standard gender tools do not provide appropriate gender-disaggregated energy data, and describes a set of tools that have been developed for that purpose. The paper concludes with an evaluation of recent experiences testing the tools in Pakistan, India, and Nepal.

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Nepal, Pakistan

Year: 2007

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Antwi, Sarpong Hammond. 2020. “The Trade-off between Gender, Energy and Climate Change in Africa: The Case of Niger Republic.” GeoJournal. doi:10.1007/s10708-020-10246-9.

Author: Sarpong Hammond Antwi

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This article examines the role of gender in climate change adaptation and energy access in Africa. Drawing on the energy situation in Niger Republic, it argues that redressing gender concerns is critical to mitigating the impact of climate changes and energy poverty in the Sahelean country. A gender sensitivity analysis reveals that Niger is a take-off stage, a state of gender equity verified from the willingness of men to support women, as well as the entrepreneurial mindset of respondents coupled with supporting policies at both macro and micro levels. The study nonetheless recommends a more significant continental effort toward gender integration in energy planning processes. It also justifies the pursuance of alternative livelihood activities and an adjustment of policy frameworks towards universal energy access by 2030, as a means to breaking the vicious circle of limited income, increased vulnerability and narrowed opportunities that thwart gender equality and mainstreaming efforts in the country and across Africa.

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Niger

Year: 2020

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Clancy, Joy S., and Nthabiseng Mohlakoana. 2020. “Gender Audits: An Approach to Engendering Energy Policy in Nepal, Kenya and Senegal.” Energy Research & Social Science 62 (April): 101378.

Authors: Joy S. Clancy, Nthabiseng Mohlakoana

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Gender audits are an approach for putting gender on the policy agenda and are an alternative to gender budgets being less dependant on experts in government finance.

This paper explores the effectiveness of gender audits as an approach to mainstreaming in the energy sector which has lagged other sectors in mainstreaming gender. The assessment takes the experiences of an international network on gender and sustainable energy that aims to get gender onto the energy policy agenda. Since there is no standard audit methodology, the network developed its own.

The paper uses an analysis of qualitative data, reviews of audit reports and key informant interviews to answer two questions. As a result of gender audits, have gender issues or attending to women's particular interests been incorporated in energy policy? Did participation in an audit build the capacity of national actors to contribute to gender mainstreaming in the energy sector? Detailed data comes from network countries conducting audits: Kenya, Senegal and Nepal, with supporting evidence from 8 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

The gender audit methodology used is partially effective in integrating gender issues into government energy policy. Pragmatic, conceptual and political barriers to gender mainstreaming continue to operate. Adopting gender-aware policies occurs rapidly in organisations that participated in the audits. Male employees more readily accept gender policies when they see that policies also benefits men. In the audit countries, a group of national gender and energy experts has been established able to contribute to mainstreaming gender in the energy sector.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, gender audits, energy policy, engendering policy, knowledge networks, gender capacity, mainstreaming effectiveness

Topics: Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: Kenya, Nepal, Senegal

Year: 2020

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Pueyo, Ana, Simon Bawakyillenuo, and Marco Carreras. 2020. “Energy Use and Enterprise Performance in Ghana: How Does Gender Matter?” The European Journal of Development Research. doi:10.1057/s41287-020-00273-0.

Authors: Ana Pueyo, Simon Bawakyillenuo, Marco Carreras

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ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
The potential impact of electricity use on enterprise performance has a gender dimension that has been overlooked by the energy and development literature. This omission disregards the evidence of a gendered division of labour and the different energy consumption patterns of different productive activities. To address the gaps in the literature, this paper analyses an enterprise development programme that jointly provides improved electricity supply, business services and enterprise clustering in Ghana. The paper aims to understand: the gender awareness of the intervention; the different energy use patterns in men and women’s enterprises; the different benefits men and women obtain from the productive use of energy; and the reasons behind the differences observed. We adopt a multi-methods approach combining gender differentiated firm level data from 400 microenterprises, with in-depth semi-structured interviews to enterprise owners and employees, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The results, which are specific to the research region, show clearly differentiated energy use patterns in enterprises owned by men and women. Men’s enterprises display higher electricity consumption, while women dominate the use of cooking fuels, mainly charcoal. The use of electricity shows a positive correlation with business profits, regardless of the owner’s gender, which is higher for enterprises owned by women. The main reasons for women’s lower electricity consumption are: the gendered division of labour, which limits women’s economic activity to a narrow number of sectors and to smaller scale operations; the lower value of women’s work which creates disincentives to mechanisation; social norms determining the types of jobs men and women can do; and women’s lower access to starting capital. We conclude that, in the absence of gender considerations, interventions for the promotion of productive uses of energy are likely to target electricity intensive activities dominated by men. We finalise by offering policy suggestions to improve the gender equity of these interventions.

FRENCH ABSTRACT:
L’impact potentiel de la consommation d’électricité sur la performance des entreprises a une dimension de genre qui a été négligée dans la littérature sur l’énergie et le développement. Cette omission ne tient pas compte des preuves d’une division sexuelle du travail et des différents modes de consommation d’énergie selon les différentes activités productives. Pour combler les lacunes de la littérature, cet article analyse un programme de développement des entreprises qui fournit conjointement un meilleur approvisionnement en électricité, des services aux entreprises et permet le regroupement d’entreprises au Ghana. Le document cherche à comprendre : la prise en compte du genre dans le cadre de l’intervention; les différents modes de consommation d’énergie dans les entreprises appartenant à des hommes et dans celles appartenant à des femmes; les différents avantages que les hommes et les femmes tirent de l’utilisation productive de l’énergie; et les raisons qui expliquent les différences constatées. Nous adoptons des méthodes mixtes de recherche, combinant les données d’entreprise sexo-spécifiques de 400 micro-entreprises, avec des entretiens semi-directifs et d’autres approfondis avec des patrons d’entreprise et des employés, des entretiens avec des informateurs clés et des discussions de groupe. Les résultats sont spécifiques à la région de la recherche et montrent des tendances de consommation d’énergie clairement distinctes entre les entreprises appartenant à des hommes et celles appartenant à des femmes. Les entreprises appartenant à des hommes ont une consommation d’électricité plus élevée, tandis que les femmes utilisent essentiellement des combustibles de cuisson, principalement le charbon de bois. Il existe une corrélation positive entre l’utilisation de l’électricité et les bénéfices des entreprises, quel que soit le sexe du propriétaire, et cette corrélation est plus forte pour les entreprises appartenant à des femmes. Les principales raisons pour lesquelles les femmes consomment moins d’électricité sont les suivantes: la division sexuelle du travail, qui cantonne l’activité économique des femmes à quelques secteurs seulement et à des opérations à plus petite échelle; la valeur plus faible du travail des femmes, qui les dissuade procéder à la mécanisation; les normes sociales, qui déterminent les types d’emplois que les hommes et les femmes peuvent faire; et un accès réduit des femmes à un capital de départ. Nous concluons qu’en l’absence de prise en compte du genre, les interventions pour la promotion d’une utilisation productive de l’énergie sont susceptibles de cibler les activités à forte intensité électrique dominées par les hommes. Enfin, nous faisons des suggestions en termes de politiques publiques pour améliorer l’équité entre les sexes dans le cadre de ces interventions.

Keywords: energy, productive uses, enterprise, gender, Ghana

Topics: Economies, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2020

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Skutsch, Margaret M. 2005. “Gender Analysis for Energy Projects and Programmes.” Energy for Sustainable Development 9 (1): 37–52.

Author: Margaret M. Skutsch

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Summary:
"This paper proposes that one of the reasons why gender is not being mainstreamed in energy project and programme planning is because there are no appropriate gender-analytic tools available for the special case of energy. It reviews the standard gender tools as used in development planning, and a number of approaches that have been proposed for the energy sector, such as the EnPoGen model and various schemes based on the project cycle. The critique of these leads to suggestions for an improved model. The paper was written as part of a process in which a training manual on gender and energy is being prepared" (Skutsch 2005, 37).

Topics: Development, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Mainstreaming, Infrastructure, Energy

Year: 2005

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Terrapon-Pfaff, Julia, Carmen Dienst, and Willington Ortiz. 2015. “The Role of Gender Concerns in the Planning of Small-Scale Energy Projects in Developing Countries.” In Decentralized Solutions for Developing Economies: Addressing Energy Poverty through Innovation, edited by Sebastian Groh, Jonas van der Straeten, Brian Edlefsen Lasch, Dimitry Gershenson, Walter Leal Filho, and Daniel M. Kammen, 285–94. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland.

Authors: Julia Terrapon-Pfaff, Carmen Dienst, Willington Ortiz

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Energy poverty affects women in developing countries more severely than it affects men; at the same time, women have less control over household resources and are often not involved in decision-making processes on energy matters. In order for transition processes of energy systems to be sustainable, these gender-related concerns need to be addressed. Although this link is widely recognized, gender aspects are still not well perceived in the planning of energy projects. To better understand the role of gender concerns in project planning, the research presented in this paper evaluates concepts of small-scale sustainable energy projects with regard to their gender sensitivity. The data originates from an expert evaluation process and was analyzed with focus on gender-related aspects. The results show that even in sustainable energy projects the issue is still not high on the agenda.

Keywords: gender, sustainable energy transitions, project concepts, developing countries

Topics: Development, Gender, Gender Analysis, Households, Infrastructure, Energy

Year: 2015

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Lahey, Kathleen A. 2010. “Women, Substantive Equality, and Fiscal Policy: Gender-Based Analysis of Taxes, Benefits, and Budgets.” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 22 (1): 27-106.

Author: Kathleen Lahey

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Topics: Economies, Economic Inequality, Public Finance, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2010