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

focusing on the development of better surveillance systems for improving early
warning systems for storm surges and floods. Again, it is necessary for such systems
to be structured in a way that will ensure the poorest receive information in a
timely manner and that they are given assistance to develop coping
strategies.
In industrialized countries, the gender impacts of adaptation
technologies may appear to be less distinct, but there are several important
factors to consider. First, women tend to be under-represented in climate
change decision-making bodies. Secondly, their consumption patterns may
differ from those of men. Thirdly, their attitudes towards environmental
sustainability sometimes differ from those of men. For example, nuclear energy
is often advocated as an adaptation strategy to reduce dependency on fossil
fuels. A Swedish study in the late 1990s found that young men were much
more likely than young women to favour the long-term use of nuclear energy.
Women against the use of nuclear power identified safety issues as their major
concern (Puranen, 2000, cited in Clancy et al., 2004). Men were much less likely
to object to nuclear waste being stored in their community. Interestingly, the
higher women’s educational level, the more likely they were to object to the use
of nuclear energy while the reverse was true for men.
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European women’s negative attitude towards nuclear energy was
highly influenced by the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, which led to fears about
both the environmental and the health risks of nuclear power. Similarly, in the
USA, Culley and Angelique’s analysis (2003) of the influence of the Three Mile
Island nuclear accident on women’s activism, suggested that they were initially
spurred towards protests because of their perception of negative health and
safety aspects of nuclear energy. Men were more likely to be convinced by
the economic arguments in favour of nuclear energy. Overall, it is clear that
attitudes are different and it is necessary for governments to recognize this when
designing or approving appropriate climate change technologies.
In the North, the rising costs of energy, food, transport, health care, etc.,
have a greater impact on women, especially those in low-income households.
There is a need for gender-sensitive research on the consumption patterns and
attitudes of men and women, but since women as a whole have lower incomes,
it is evident that adaptation technologies for them must be both cost-effective
and accessible.
Finally, in the area of both adaptation and mitigation strategies, there
is a need to recognize, record and value local knowledge and to blend it
with scientific research. For example, in many cultures in Africa, Asia and Latin
Module 6