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

communications technologies, including cell phones, over the past two
decades, has changed the way that human beings communicate.
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Technology is never
gender-neutral. Men and women
have different attitudes to and
relationships with all aspects of
technology. Technology in the
traditional sense of tools and
machines has been considered
a “male domain” and it is only in
recent years that girls and women
have been encouraged to pursue
studies in mathematics and
engineering.
Box 1 Technology is not gender-neutral
In many developing countries, girls’ and
women’s access to information and
communication technology is constrained
by:
• Social and cultural bias.
• Inadequate technological infrastructure in
rural areas.
• Women’s lower education levels (especially
in science and technology) and fear of or
lack of interest in technology.
• Women’s lack of disposable income to
Despite their ingenuity purchase technology services.
and ability to improvise with
Source: World Bank, 2004.
whatever materials they happen
to have at hand, women in most
parts of the world are highly
under-represented in the formal creation of new technologies. However, in all
parts of the world, women are active users of technology. Women’s specific
needs in technology development, their access to technical information, tools
and machines often is very different from that of men. All of this influences
how (and if) they will have access to, or make use of, new technologies.
Cultural patterns are also important. For example, among some
pastoral communities, water points are managed by men (who are mainly
concerned with providing water for livestock – a source of income and prestige
for them). These water points often have no taps for women to draw domestic
water with the result that women are forced to collect water at the cattle
troughs being used (and contaminated) by the animals.
6.2 What does technology have to do with climate change?
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) positioned clean technologies at the centre of global responses to
climate change. Clean technologies will help to estimate, monitor and control
the environmental and human impact of climate change but to be truly
effective, these technologies must be gender-sensitive both in terms of