Livelihoods

Citation:

Salleh, Ariel, ed. 2009. Eco-Sufficiency and Global Justice: Women Write Political Ecology. New York: Pluto Press.

Author: Ariel Salleh, ed.

Annotation:

Table of Contents:
1. The Devaluation of Women’s Labour
Silvia Federici

2. Who is the ‘He’ of He Who Decides in Economic Discourse?
Ewa Charkiewicz

3. The Diversity Matrix: Relationship and Complexity
Susan Hawthorne

4. Development for Some is Violence for Others
Nalini Nayak

5. Nuclearised Bodies and Militarised Space
Zohl de Ishtar

6. Women and Deliberative Water Management
Andrea Moraes and Ellie Perkins

7. Mainstreaming Trade and Millennium Development Goals?
Gig Francisco and Peggy Antrobus

8. Policy and the Measure of Woman
Marilyn Waring

9. Feminist Ecological Economics in Theory and Practice
Sabine U. O’Hara

10. Who Pays for Kyoto Protocol? Selling Oxygen and Selling Sex
Ana Isla

11. How Global Warming is Gendered
Meike Spitzner

12. Women and the Abuja Declaration for Energy Sovereignty
Leigh Brownhill and Terisa E. Turner

13. Ecofeminist Political Economy and the Politics of Money
Mary Mellor

14. Saving Women: Saving the Commons
Leo Podlashuc

15. From Eco-Sufficiency to Global Justice
Ariel Salleh

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Feminist Political Economy, Globalization, Infrastructure, Energy, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods

Year: 2009

Citation:

Nelson, Valerie, and Yianna Lambrou. 2011. “Scoping the Gender Issues in Liquid Biofuel Value Chains.” NRI Working Paper Series: Climate Change, Agriculture and Natural Resources No. 3, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, London.

Authors: Valerie Nelson, Yianna Lambrou

Annotation:

Summary:
“The gender dimensions of biofuel development have been relatively neglected. Yet to achieve equitable and socially sustainable development requires an understanding of how women, men and social groups may be affected differently by biofuel innovations. Whole communities will be affected by biofuel developments, but the opportunities available and the significant risks and impacts involved are not experienced equally by women and men. This is because of the gender inequalities that prevail throughout the world. In fact, women and female-headed households will be disproportionately affected, because they usually have less decision-making power, and lack control over key livelihood resources and their situations could be made worse by gender-blind biofuel developments.

“Field-based evidence is scarce for identifying best practice in biofuel gender mainstreaming, and this is perhaps unsurprising given the recent nature of the commercial biofuels boom and the catch-up that is required of development practitioners and policy-makers to understand and respond to the risks, impacts and opportunities involved. More in-depth field studies in Asia, Latin America and Africa are needed to provide evidence that will enable the formulation of detailed guidance on specific feedstocks in different contexts.

“A huge range of journal articles and grey literature has been reviewed to produce this study and in the search for information on the gender dimensions of biofuels. This scoping study seeks to inform policy-makers and practitioners about the key issues of gender in biofuels schemes and value chains and to provide recommendations about what can be done by building on women’s capabilities, to support their agency and collective action and thus to promote their empowerment for more equitable rural pathways” (Nelson and Lambrou 2011, 1).

Topics: Development, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods

Year: 2011

Citation:

Nathan, Dev, and Govind Kelkar. 1997. “Wood Energy: The Role of Women’s Unvalued Labor.” Gender, Technology and Development 1 (2): 205–24.

Authors: Dev Nathan, Govind Kelkar

Abstract:

This paper argues that in a farm, family-specific aspects of gender relations—that women’s labor is unvalued as ’domestic service,’ or that it has a lower value and lower opportunity cost than men’s labor—lead to the overuse of women’s labor in activities like wood fuel collection. This inhibits farm families from investing in labor-saving and fuel-saving devices, like improved stoves. It also has an adverse impact on farm women’s leisure time and their health. The paper argues that the primary emphasis in policy to bring about an increase in fuel efficiency or fuel switching should be on increasing the possibility of women’s income-earning opportunities, mainly outside the homestead, as in rural industry.

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Economies, Gender, Health, Households, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods

Year: 1997

Citation:

Mininni, Giulia M. 2015. “Gender and Energy Issues in the Global South: Implications for the Post-Millennium Development Goals Agenda after 2015.” The Luminary (5): 43–62.

Author: Giulia M. Mininni

Abstract:

Due to the conditions of gender inequality that limit women’s access to and control over environmental resources in remote rural areas, unfavourable environmental conditions tend to have more negative effects on women than on men. The same considerations can be applied to the lack of access to energy services, especially given women’s traditional roles and responsibilities as housekeepers. This happens more consistently in areas where people are directly dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods. This paper will explore how access to energy services is essential to improving the living conditions of women in off-grid rural areas of the global south, and, in the end, to contribute to global poverty reduction. It will highlight how for a long time energy projects have been treated as “gender neutral”, founded on the belief that energy issues and solutions were the same for men and women. However, the reality is different in most countries in the global south. The paper will outline how gender sensitive policies and programmes are necessary to address women’s specific needs. Finally, the paper will focus on the post- Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda and underline how the new framework has the potential to offer opportunities to integrate energy access as a priority goal. Small-scale decentralised energy options could also ensure better participation at local level of under-represented groups such as women and push for better gender equality.

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Environment, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods

Year: 2015

Citation:

Mahat, Ishara. 2006. “Gender and Rural Energy Technologies: Empowerment Perspective—A Case Study of Nepal.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue Canadienne d’Études du Développement 27 (4): 531–50.

Author: Ishara Mahat

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This paper analyzes whether alternative energy technologies have been able to lift the socio-economic status of rural women in Nepal, and mountain women in particular, in terms of saving their labour and time spent in managing household energy. It also examines if these technologies have provided increasing opportunities for women to be involved in socio-economic activities in rural villages. It is based on research conducted in Kavre, one of the jirst districts where the Rural Energy Development Program (REDP), supported by the UNDP, implemented micro hydro plants and other rural energy technologies.

FRENCH ABSTRACT:
L'auteure présente une analyse où elle tente de déterminer si les technologies énergétiques alternatives ont pu rehausser le statut socioéconomique des femmes du Népal qui vivent en milieu rural, notamment celles des régions montagneuses, en leur permettant d'épargner le temps qu'elles consacraient aux tâches nécessaires pour gérer l'éergie du ménage. Elle examine également si ces technologies ont donné aux femmes plus d'occasions de participer aux activités socioéconorniques des villages ruraux. L'article repose sur une recherche réalisée à Kavre, l'un des premiers districts où le programme de déeloppement énergétique en milieu rural (REDP), qu'appuie le PNUD, a servi à mettre en place des microcentrales hydroélectriques et d'autres technologies énergétiques rurales.

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Households, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2006

Citation:

Khan, Hasna J. 2003. “Case-Study: Battery-Operated Lamps Produced by Rural Women in Bangladesh.” Energy for Sustainable Development 7 (3): 68–70.

Author: Hasna J. Khan

Annotation:

Summary:
“Through consultations with community members and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) about energy needs in an area of remote islands outside the reach of the grid, electric lighting was identified as a high priority. The project identified a low-cost solution for improving the quality of indoor lighting of rural households by replacing the traditional kerosene lamps with modern battery-operated lamps. The project trained rural women to produce the lamps in a micro-enterprise manufacturing facility and distribute them through rural markets. By helping women shift away from traditional farm labour to skilled labour and gainful employment in the energy sector, the project has elevated the knowledge base of rural women and exposed them to mainstream commercial activities, while also meeting community needs for lighting” (Khan 2003, 68).

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods, NGOs Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2003

Citation:

Shibata, Aiko. 1992. “The Effects of Japanese Income Tax Provisions on Women’s Labour Force Participation.” In Women's Work in the World Economy, edited by Nancy Folbre, B. Bergmann, B. Agarwal, and M. Floro, 169-79. London: Palgrave Macmillan London.

Author: Aiko Shibata

Abstract:

At a session of the Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance in Istanbul in the summer of 1988, a gentleman from a small oil-producing country in the Middle East asked me: ‘Was there any effective governmental means of keeping wives at home?’ I was taken by surprise and didn’t know how to respond. However, I later realised that Japanese tax laws implicitly do just that. Designed to give a tax break to married taxpayers, they discourage housewives from taking jobs. Further, many private companies have adopted wage structures that also discourage housewives from working out-side their homes.

Keywords: marginal contribution, labour participation rate, spouse earning, high income group

Topics: Economies, Public Finance, Gender, Women, Governance, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan

Year: 1992

Citation:

Lutz-Ley, América, and Stephanie J. Buechler. 2020. “Mining and Women in Northwest Mexico: a Feminist Political Ecology Approach to Impacts on Rural Livelihoods.” Human Geography 13 (1): 74-84.

Authors: América Lutz-Ley, Stephanie J. Buechler

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: 
Women’s participation in large-scale mining (LSM) has been increasing in Mexico and worldwide; however, few comprehensive studies exist on the socioeconomic effects of mining on women depending on the specific roles they play in this activity. The objective of this study was to analyze, from a feminist political ecology perspective, the effects of mining on women in a rural community in Sonora State, in arid northwest Mexico, a region with important participation of LSM in the country. For this purpose, we developed a mixed methods approach combining literature review on gender and LSM, semistructured indepth interviews, and analysis of secondary government data. Most literature on women and mining treats them conceptually as a homogeneous social group or focuses on only one role women play in mining. We address this gap by identifying several roles women can play in their interactions with the mining sector and then analyzing and comparing the effects of mining associated with these distinctive roles. In doing so, we unravel the gendered complexities of mining and highlight the socioecological contradictions embedded in these dynamics for individual women who are faced with significant trade-offs. Mining can provide economic and professional opportunities for women of varying educational and socioeconomic levels in otherwise impoverished and landless rural households. At the same time, women are unable to, as one interviewee phrased it, “break the glass ceiling even if using a miner’s helmet,” especially in managerial positions. Extraction of natural resources in the community is accompanied by the extraction of social capital and personal lives of miners. We give voice to the social– ecological contradictions lived by women in these multiple roles and offer potential insights both for addressing gender-based inequities in mining and for avenues toward collective action and empowerment.

SPANISH ABSTRACT: 
La participación de las mujeres en la minería de gran escala se ha incrementado en México y alrededor del mundo; sin embargo, existen escasos estudios comprehensivos de los efectos socioeconómicos de la minería sobre las mujeres dependiendo de los roles específicos que ellas juegan en esta actividad. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar, desde la perspectiva de la ecología política feminista, los efectos de la minería sobre mujeres de una comunidad rural del estado de Sonora, en el noroeste árido de México; una región con importante participación de la minería de gran escala en el país. Con este propósito desarrollamos un acercamiento metodológico mixto, combinando el análisis de literatura sobre género y minería de gran escala, con entrevistas semiestructuradas y análisis de datos secundarios producidos por agencias gubernamentales. La mayoría de los estudios sobre mujeres y minería las concibe conceptualmente como un grupo social homogéneo, o se centran solamente en uno o dos roles de las mujeres en la minería. En este trabajo se cubre esta brecha mediante la identificación de múltiples roles que las mujeres pueden desempeñar en sus interacciones con el sector minero y el análisis comparativo de los efectos de la minería asociados con estos distintos roles. De esta manera, se desentrañan las complejidades de la minería vistas desde el género y se enfatizan las contradicciones socio-ecológicas inmersas en estas dinámicas para mujeres que enfrentan costos individuales significativos. La minería puede proveer oportunidades económicas y profesionales para mujeres de distintos niveles educativos y socioeconómicos en hogares rurales empobrecidos o sin tierras productivas. Al mismo tiempo, las mujeres no han podido, en palabras de una minera, “romper el techo de cristal ni usando un casco minero”, especialmente en posiciones de mando. La extracción de recursos naturales en la comunidad se acompaña de la extracción de capital social y el tiempo de vida personal de las mineras. Se da voz a las contradicciones socio-ecológicas vividas por mujeres que ocupan estos múltiples roles y se ofrecen visiones potenciales para atender estas inequidades basadas en el género en la minería, así como posibles caminos hacia la acción colectiva y el empoderamiento.

Keywords: women in mining, feminist political ecology, rural livelihoods, northwest Mexico, extractivism, mujeres en la minería, ecología política feminista, medios de vida rurales, noroeste de México, extractivismo

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2020

Citation:

Buechler, Stephanie, and Anne-Marie S. Hanson, eds. 2015. A Political Ecology of Women, Water and Global Environmental Change. New York: Routledge.

Authors: Stephanie Buechler, ed. , Anne-Marie S. Hanson, ed.

Annotation:

Anne-Marie Hanson and Stephanie Buechler

2. Interrogating Large-Scale Development and Inequality in Lesotho: Bridging Feminist Political Ecology, Intersectionality and Environmental Justice Frameworks
Yvonne Braun

3. The Silent (and Gendered) Violence: Understanding Water Access in Mining Areas
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

4. Urban Water Visibility in Los Angeles: Legibility and Access for All
Kathleen Kambic

5. Advances and Setbacks in Women’s Participation in Water Management in Brazil
Andrea Moraes

6. Climate-Water Challenges and Gendered Adaptation Strategies in Rayon, a Riparian Community in Sonora, Mexico
Stephanie Buechler

7. International Partnerships of Women for Sustainable Watershed Governance in Times of Climate Change
Patricia E. (Ellie) Perkins and Patricia Figuieredo Walker

8. Women’s Contributions to Climate Change Adaptation in Egypt’s Mubarak Resettlement Scheme through Cactus Cultivation and Adjusted Irrigation
Dina Najjar

9. Shoes in the Seaweed and Bottles on the Beach: Global Garbage and Women’s Oral Histories of Socio-Environmental Change in Coastal Yucatán
Anne-Marie Hanson

10. Heen Kas’ el’ti Zoo: Among the Ragged Lakes – Storytelling and Collaborative Water Research with Carcoss/Tagish First Nation (Yukon Territory, Canada)
Eleanor Hayman with Mark Wedge and Colleen James

11. Pamiri Women and the Melting Glaciers of Tajikistan: A Visual Knowledge Exchange for Improved Environmental Governance
Citt Williams and Ivan Golovnev

12. Conclusion: Advancing Disciplinary Scholarship on Gender, Water and Environmental Change through Feminist Political Ecology
Stephanie Buechler, Anne-Marie Hanson, Diana Liverman and Miriam Gay-Antaki

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Intersectionality, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, Americas, North America, South America, Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Lesotho, Mexico

Year: 2015

Citation:

Indirastuti, Catharina, and Andi Misbahul Pratiwi. 2019. “When Wetlands Dry: Feminist Political Ecology Study on Peat Ecosystem Degradation in South and Central Kalimantan.” Jurnal Perempuan 24 (4): 335-49.

Authors: Catharine Indirastuti, Andi Misbahul

Abstract:

INDONESIAN ABSTRACT: 

Indonesia memiliki 47 persen lahan gambut tropis dari total lahan gambut dunia. Namun sayangnya tata kelola lahan gambut yang berkelanjutan belum banyak diterapkan dalam pemanfaatan lahan gambut, alih-alih menjadi rumah bagi keanekaragaman hayati, lahan gambut di Indonesia justru berakhir kering, terbakar, dan beralih menjadi perkebunan monokultur. Persoalan degradasi ekosistem gambut adalah akibat dari politik tata kelola lingkungan yang tidak berkelanjutan--yang menyejarah. Penelitian ini memperlihatkan kompleksitas politik tata kelola kawasan gambut dan dampaknya terhadap perempuan dengan lensa ekologi politik feminis. Penelitian ini dilakukan di beberapa desa di Kalimantan Tengah dan Selatan, kawasan gambut tropis terbesar di Indonesia. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa 1) Ada persoalan salah tata kelola lahan gambut yang disadari perempuan desa baik secara praktis maupun politis; 2) perempuan dan anak perempuan mendapatkan dampak berlapis dari degradasi ekosistem gambut yakni, perempuan tercerabut dari ruang hidup, perempuan sulit mendapatkan sumber air dan pangan, perempuan mengambil alih peran kepala keluarga karena laki-laki bermigrasi namun tidak selalu diakui perannya sebagai kepala keluarga, dan perempuan dimiskinkan karena kehilangan kemandiriannya dan harus bekerja sebagai buruh sawit. Penelitian ini menggunakan kajian ekologi politik feminis sebagai alat analisis untuk melihat ketertindasan berlapis yang dialami perempuan pedesaan akibat degradasi ekosistem gambut. 

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: 
Indonesia tropical peatlands area is 47 percent of out of the total global peatlands. But unfortunately, sustainable peatland governance has not been widely applied in the management of peatlands, instead of being home to biodiversity, peatlands in Indonesia have ended up dry, burning and turned into monoculture plantations. The problem of peat ecosystem degradation is the result of unsustainable - historical environmental governance politics. This study shows the political complexity of peatland governance and its impact on women with a feminist political ecology lens. This research was conducted in several villages in Central and South Kalimantan, the largest tropical peat areas in Indonesia. This study found that 1) Rural women were realized that there are problems with peatland governance, both practically and politically; 2) women and girls have multiple impacts from peat ecosystem degradation ie, women are deprived of living space, women find it difficult to get water and food sources, women take over the role of the head of the family because men migrate but are not always recognized as the head of the family, and women are impoverished because they lose their independence and must work as oil palm workers. This study uses a feminist political ecology study as an analytical tool to see the multi-layered oppression experienced by rural women due to peat ecosystem degradation. 

Keywords: rural women, peatland village, peat ecosystem, feminist political ecology, resource governance, perempuan desa, desa gambut, ekosistem gambut, ekologi politik feminis, tata kelola sumber daya

Topics: Agriculture, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Governance, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Indonesia

Year: 2019