We all experience the world differently,
and to solve climate change we must consider everyone’s point of view. Empowering women
is fundamental to building a better future in terms of both society and the environment.
To keep this brief, let’s consider three key ways in which empowering women could help solve
climate change. We’ll look at the productivity of farms, family planning, and climate leadership.
So what do women farmers have to do with climate change you ask? Quite a lot actually.
Did you know that in low and middle-income countries,
land farmed by women has been found to produce 20-30% fewer crops than land farmed by men?
Now, why do we see this “gender gap in agricultural productivity”?
The evidence is clear: women’s farming skills are just as good as men’s,
but they struggle to access the same opportunities and resources. This leaves them at a disadvantage.
In low and middle-income countries, on average, 43% of agricultural workers are women. As you can
imagine, if the productivity levels of almost half of all farmers in these countries are suboptimal,
then gender inequality poses an indirect threat to food security.
In fact, it’s estimated that raising women’s agricultural productivity could result in 100-150
million fewer people living with hunger. Now that’s something you don’t hear every day huh?
Not only is gender inequality in farming a threat to food security but it’s a threat to our planet.
By increasing women’s agricultural productivity
more food can be produced on existing farmland and fewer forests need to be cleared for new fields.
This means that fewer emissions are released overall.
Providing women with equal access to tools and information, and making sure women can
have land rights could help reduce the gender gap in agricultural productivity.
And if you thought that was everything, guess again... Women often have less time to engage
in productive activities than men because they are responsible for additional tasks.
Particularly in low-income countries, women are traditionally responsible for domestic labour,
which can involve caring for children and the elderly, maintaining the home, and preparing food.
Simple solutions like sharing domestic responsibilities equally
can free up women's time for productive activities and help close the gender
gap in labour market participation, for example.
Freeing up women’s time also allows them to focus more on their education,
which is crucial when it comes to slowing down emissions growth.
According to Project Drawdown, education is one of the most powerful tools at our
disposal for avoiding emissions and curbing population growth. In fact, women with higher
levels of education tend to practice family planning and have fewer and healthier children.
Family planning is about enabling women to choose if they want children,
how many they want, and when they want to have them.
In 2019, 24% of all women old enough to have children who wanted to use family planning
did not have access to the contraceptives they needed.
As a result, these women experienced high rates of unplanned pregnancy.
Providing family planning services, access to contraceptives, and reducing the stigma around
contraceptives not only benefits women, but it also benefits the environment.
With widespread contraception, women tend to have fewer children, which can reduce global emissions.
Family planning and education go hand in hand. Education gives women more opportunities
as alternatives to having children or families,
while family planning gives them the means to achieve their goals.
Family planning and girls’ education would provide 16-29% of the reduction
in emissions needed to avoid climate warming of over 2ºC.
With better access to education and employment opportunities, women are
more likely to learn about their environment and be inspired to become climate leaders!
Speaking of leaders… Globally, power is not shared equally between genders.
As of October 2019, only 24.5% of all countries’ politicians were women. Although the gender gap
It’s important to include women when making decisions as you're not going
to get the full range of perspectives if you exclude 50% of the population from debates.
Women’s opinions and perspectives tend to differ in some respects from men’s.
Hence, policies that are based on both women’s and men’s views are likely to be more inclusive.
For example, when weighing up alternatives,
women are statistically more likely to consider the needs of their family and community.
So, is it likely that including women in decision-making and leadership
is already helping the environment? Yes! The evidence is only correlational, but companies
with women directors are more likely to report their greenhouse gas emissions! And did you know
that countries with more women in parliament are more likely to support environmental treaties?
Empowering women as decision-makers and international leaders
could help fight climate change and improve the lives of people everywhere!
Which inspiring female climate leaders do you know? Let us know in the comments below.
And also, we’d love to hear what topics you’d like us to cover in future videos!