GGCA Gender and Climate Change Training Manual - Women's ...

which limits their capacity to respond to disasters. In India, Nepal and
Thailand for example less than 10% of women farmers own land (FAO, 2007).
Furthermore, women are over-represented in the informal economy and
agricultural sectors, which are underpaid, and are most susceptible to disaster
risks (Mehta, 2007).
iv) Education and information
As regards education and literacy levels, women and girls experience
many obstacles that limit their opportunities to obtain an education; of the 876
million people in the world who are illiterate, two-thirds are women and threefifths
of the 115 million children that do not go to school are girls (Lara, 2004). It
has also been noticed that after a disaster or during stressful times many girls are
forced to drop out of school to help with chores in the house or to save money
(Davis et al., 2005).
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Access to information, education and communication plays a critical
role in determining the effectiveness of early warning systems which are critical in
reducing the impact of floods, droughts, hurricanes, tsunamis and other disasters.
Women have lower literacy levels, and therefore are less likely to respond to
written early warning announcements and instructions; poor education leads
to less involvement in decision making and less representation in disaster
response organizations and training, hence lowering their capacity to respond
to disasters.
v) Political will
Lack of political will to acclimatize to gender and climate change, and
limited access to political power and representation for marginalized groups
such as women exacerbates their vulnerability to disasters.
4.2.2 Vulnerabilities and capacities
It is important to note that the differences in men and women’s social
positions not only create specific gendered vulnerabilities and risks but also
generate gender-specific capacities. The specific capacities that women
have developed in different social and cultural settings can be very important
during all the phases of disaster management and also for climate change
mitigation and adaptation efforts. For example, research on women’s risk at
the local level in the Caribbean (Enarson et al., 2001) has shown that Caribbean
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