Overview of linkages between gender and climate change

V Gender-defined vulnerability
to climate change
Learning objective: Identify specific gender-based inequalities that
contribute towards the disproportionate exposure and vulnerability
of women to the effects of climate change, and the role of women as key
agents of change in climate responses
7. As discussed earlier (paragraph 5), climate change is not gender-neutral. It
affects women and men differently (table 2). There are complex and dynamic
links between gender and climate change not only in terms of vulnerability
to the adverse impacts of climate change (paragraph 8), but also in terms
of how to adapt to those impacts (paragraph 9) and/or how to find ways of
reducing the levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) (paragraph 10) that are
causing climate change. These three aspects are discussed below.
Box 3: Gender inequality: Illustrative statistics
ÊÊ70 percent of those who live
on less than a dollar a day are women.
ÊÊWomen work two thirds of the world’s working hours, yet receive only
10 percent of the world’s income.
ÊÊWomen own only 1 percent of the world’s property.
ÊÊAlthough they predominate in world food production (50 to 80 percent), women own
less than 10 percent of land.
ÊÊGlobally, only 8 percent of cabinet members are women and 75 percent of the world’s
876 million illiterate adults are women.
ÊÊTwo fifths of girls are never born due to a preference for sons.
ÊÊWomen account for 58 percent of unpaid employment and only 10 to 20 of
every 100 landowners are women.
Sources: World Bank (2011a), FAO (2011), Perch (2011), OECD (2008).
Gender and Climate Change Capacity development series Afric a
Overview of linkages between gender and climate change Training module 1
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