Gender and Climate Change by Joane Nagel

Even the narrow notion of physical sustainability implies a concern for social equity between generations, a concern that must logically be extended to equity within each generation.īecause sustainability inherently deals with the ability to use a resource over time, discussions of sustainability have focused on intertemporal or intergenerational aspects of equity, with relatively less attention paid to inequality at a given point in time.

Physical sustainability cannot be secured unless development policies pay attention to such considerations as changes in access to resources and in the distribution of costs and benefits. The Brundtland Commission's report ( 1, p. Although the emphasis is generally on physical or environmental sustainability, many analysts also pay attention to social and economic sustainability ( 2). Although definitions vary, one of the most often cited is that of the Brundtland Commission: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” ( 1, p. Conservation is influenced not only by gender but also by a host of tangible and intangible factors, including local ecology, context, and culture, that affect incentives and the ability to adopt sustainable extraction and provision practices.Ĭoncepts of sustainability have been prominent in international discourse and development policy for at least 30 years. Despite early claims that women are naturally more conserving of resources, the empirical literature, in particular, gives a more mixed and nuanced picture. Particular attention is given to evidence on closeness to nature, focus on conservation, rights to resources, opportunities to exploit resources, and constraints to adoption of sustainable practices.

This review draws on ecofeminist theory, feminist political ecology, intrahousehold literature, and natural resource management case studies and reviews to examine how gender shapes the motives, means, and opportunities for men and women to contribute to sustainability. Sustainability and gender have been prominent on the development agenda since the 1980s, but there has been little systematic study of the links between the two.

Gender and Climate Change by Joane Nagel