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Volume-04 ISSN: 2455-3085 (Online)
Issue-05 RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary
May-2019 www.rrjournals.com[UGC Listed Journal]
RRIJM 2015, All Rights Reserved 210 | P a g e
Effects of Climate change on Women
Dr.B.E.George Dimitrov
Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, St.Claret College-Bangalore (India)
ARTICLE DETAILS
ABSTRACT
Article History
Published Online: 15 May 2019
Women hold half of the world population which is considered as one of the largest human
resource in the organized and unorganized sectors. Though they share equal population
with men they are often considered to be weak and vulnerable. In many circumstances they
are often exploited, discriminated in the grounds of gender and their rights are being
neglected. Most of the worlds developed and under developed nations has the large
disparity of women participation in politics, decision making, policy and advocacy are not yet
reached them, instead all the positions are occupied by men. The countries which are highly
developed in economy, science and technology do not have proper representation.
Keywords
Climate change, Women, Vulnerability,
Health.
*Corresponding Author
Email: george1sasy[at]gmail.com
1. Introduction
Worldwide, the average life expectancy of women in the
developed countries is 82 years and less than 63 years in the
developing countries. When it comes to the world lowest life
expectancy of women the Southern African country Lesotho
has the life expectancy of 46 years which is highly affected by
HIV/AIDS. Whereas maternal death has been an average of
136 per 100,000 births which has reduced from 269 in 1990 for
100,000 births. One side the death ratio of maternal mothers
are reduced and surprisingly there are some developed
nations who has increased death ratio. In 1990, USA had 12
deaths per 100,000 births and recently 28 death per 100,000
births. Whereas in India average life expectancy of women is
66 years and 174 maternal death per 100,000 birth.
The financial ratio between men and women shows a
huge gap where men are more dominant when it comes for
financial inclusion. Especially women share of non-agricultural
employment shows various differences throughout the world.
African countries have 30 percent of women in an average as
non-agricultural workers, compared with other countries like
Latin America 44 percent,48 percent in Europe, North
America,25 percent in Asia and the highest in Maldova 55
percent. Likewise in the less developed nations only 66
females are enrolled in the primary education out of 100 males
and female out number by 125 for 100 males in developed
countries.
2. Climate Change
Climate change is a change of weather which has been
evolved through various generations and decades. It is also
referred to the average changes of weather which might be
long time as well as short time which influences the biotic
process by radiation, tectonic plates, volcanic eruptions and
naturals disasters. Moreover human habitation and rapid
developed has also caused the huge impact over global
warming and change. Human activities related to the
destruction of nature are some significant causes of climate
change and referred as global warming.i Most of the scientist
and environmentalist believe that climate change is caused
through green house emission. When human beings started to
occupy nature and environment by destroying them by rapid
development of cities and urbanization is also one of the
reasons for global warming. In the last 100 years, the average
temperature of the Earth's surface has increased by 0.85
degree celsius.
It is also recorded out of 13 of the 14 warmest years were
identified in the 21st century where 2015 has been recorded as
the warmest year. This shows the increase of high
temperature, extensive weather and increasing sea level. From
1990 onwards the sea level is increasing with an average of 19
cm globally each and every year. The increasing level of sea
water has caused most of the low lying countries near the sea
are at higher risk. Even, India’s highest coastal area of 7,500
kms will also face the wrath of sea level increase. Likewise,
union territories like Andaman and Nicobar Islands and
Lakshadweep islands will fall under the low level elevation
coastal zone and 81,000 kms land comes under this category
with 60 million population will face the increase of sea level.
The three metropolitan cities over the coastal area will
have an average increase of sea water from 2-10 meters.
There are possibilities of over flooding, salinizing, destruction
of natural resources and ecosystem. Kolkata which comes
under delta location has lower elevation will receive more
amount of water through melting glaciers.ii
Generally, in the atmosphere certain gases block the heat
escaping from the earth surface these long lived gases remain
semi-permanently and do not respond physically or chemically
which are called as forcing climate change. Water vapour
when responds physically or chemically in the change of
temperature while mixing with other gases in the atmosphere.
Greenhouse gases are mainly protected by the primary
sources of water vapour which acts as a shield for the earth in
absorbing heat with life supporting average of 59 degrees
Fahrenheit (15 degree Celsius).iii
The increasing patterns of development of various nations
have made serious complications over many decades. The
race between the developed and the underdeveloped nations
has made the earth to deplete all its resources rapidly. The
depletion of climate change started when mankind started to
Volume-04, Issue-05,May-2019 RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary
RRIJM 2015, All Rights Reserved 211 | Page
destroy nature by the name of development caused the
emergence of global warming. Industrial revolution was a
stepping stone for the depletion of climate change where new
technology was adopted in industries which produced gases
which destroyed the environment.
The modern civilization has increased the atmospheric
level of carbon di oxide for the last 150 years from 280 parts
per million to 400 parts per million. It is also observed that 90
percent of the earth’s temperature increase is mainly because
of human based green house gases like carbon di oxide,
methane and nitrous oxide over the past 50 years.iv
3. Climate Change and Women
Climate change has negative impacts over the lives of
men and women, broadly speaking it has higher impacts over
the poor women, due to their limited access towards recovery,
rehabilitation and reconstruction. Whereas the rural women are
vulnerable and do not have the access and flexibility to adapt
climate change during natural and manmade disasters.
Women are always seen as caretakers and caregivers in the
household settings, which makes them vulnerable when they
are affected by floods, earthquakes and landslides. There are
certain fundamental causes which are influencing women
vulnerability during natural disasters namely economic, social,
ecological, political, physical, emotional, etc. Fisrtly,
economical vulnerability has serious impact over women
makes them difficulty to find employment opportunities in the
formal and informal sectors where they are underpaid and less
access towards resources. Secondly, social vulnerability where
the changing patterns of social conditions which makes women
to face various social problems within the society, family which
disintegrates the social process where women are not able to
adopt the social change. Thirdly, ecological vulnerability in the
aftermath makes women to move in search of food and fodder
for their livelihood due to the changing environment and the
degradation of environment it makes them difficult to adopt
new environment. Fourthly, political vulnerability do not allow
women to be properly represented in decision making, limited
access to political power and representation. Fifthly, physical
vulnerability as most of the women are psychologically affected
during disasters which has negative impact over their body
like, soreness, miscarriages, sleep, physical impairments,
gynecological problems ,etc. Sixthly, emotional vulnerability
women face various emotional problems while there are
natural disasters like fear, anxiety, disbeliefs, anger,
frustrations, denial, irritation, etc.
Figure: 1.1-BenchMarking on the Vulnerability faced by Women during Disaster and Climate change
4. Issues of Climate Change on Women
There are various issues related with climate change on
women some of the major issues are natural resources, natural
disasters, health, population growth, urbanization migration,
household composition, conflict and violence, etc. The World
Food Programme estimates 10-20 percent of the people face
heavy risk of hunger by 2050 globally due to climate change.
Out of this people are at risk of climate change which results to
climate related to hunger in developing countries in which it will
hugely affect women and children.vUnited Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change website, of the 7,839
documents searchable, there are only 30 results returned for
the keyword “gender,” and even fewer for the keyword
“women.”
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Natural resources
Natural resource-dependent activities are critical to the
livelihoods of the majority of the world’s poor. For example,
almost 80% of the world’s undernourished people depend on
agriculture for their livelihood, and 75% of the world’s poorest
households are directly or indirectly dependent on farming or
fishing (FAO, 2009)vi. The challenge of maintaining sustainable
livelihoods in a degrading environment is also a gender
sensitive issue. Women are vulnerable and produce up to 90%
of rural poor’s food and face climate change, depletion of
natural resources, because they are disproportionately
involved in livelihood and reliant on natural resource-
dependent activities (WWF, 2010).
Natural disasters
When there are natural disasters women prove their roles
in managing disaster cycle. They have high level of risk
management, knowledge on their community, social
networking, protecting and managing natural resources make
them prime time players during early warning of
disaster(Aguilar, et al., 2008)vii.The changing weather patterns
and seasons, intense weather, sea level increase makes
negative impact on women. Most of the women lack in
accessing the information regarding floods, earthquakes,
cyclones, tsunami, etc. Women mostly stay at homes during
disasters as they are not trained up with coping skills like
swimming, climbing trees, etc. Life saving skills are mostly
thought to men were women are excluded in decision making
during disasters. In 2004, Tsunami in the Indian ocean an
average of 77 percent causalities were women because they
were not taught to swim where many drowned.viii
Health
Women are the easiest victims of health disorders during
climate change and disasters. Water borne diseases,
malnutrition, anxiety, mental disorders, depression, are the
major impact over women. One of the worlds primary producer
of food are women, the cultural and traditions of society often
make them more prone to hunger and poverty compared with
men. When women are underweight and stunted growth
without adequate food often delivers low birth weight child or
malnourished child. 50 percent of the pregnant women suffer
from iron deficiency in developing nation where yearly 3,
15,000 women die during child birth.ixLikewise when it comes
to access to clean drinking water around 1.2 billion people do
not have access to clean drinking water and many are affected
by water borne diseases. Around 6000 children die due to
water borne diseases each and every day. xAccording to
NSSO(National Sample Survey Organisation) 2012, about
54% of rural women had to travel between 200 meters and five
kilometers daily to get drinking water. They daily walk on an
average of 20 minutes and spent another 15 minutes in search
of drinking water.
Rural women spend 210 hours in each year for fetching
water has a loss of 27 days wages especially for the household
in search of water. It is an average of 64,000 times covering
the distance of earth and moon.70 percent of the rural women
in India especially in the states of Chattisgarh, Odissa,
Jharkhand have to travel 40 minutes,33 minutes in Bihar,30
minutes in Rajasthan, lowest in Assam for 10 minutes and
urban areas of Delhi has recorded as 6 minutes where women
spent time for fetching water.xi
Women's mental health: The Facts
41.9 percent of the neuropsychiatric disorders are higher
among women compared to 29.3 percent among women. They
face depressive disorders, brain syndromes, dementias.
Around 50 million people i.e. 80 percent are affected by
internal rebellion, wars, disasters and displacements
particularly women and children are highly vulnerable to
lifetime violence of 16 percent to 50 percent. Whereas on in
five women are raped lifetime due to displacements.xii
Population growth
Developing countries increasing population makes the
impact of livelihood challenges on women were they mostly
rely on natural resources for their survival. This would
sometime result in higher competition in getting natural
resources which make women vulnerable and brings higher
fertility impact on health.
Urbanization
The migration rates are very much higher in developing
nations due to the failure of agricultural and other organized
sectors. Migration due to environmental degradation, low
productivity has made a shift towards rural to urban areas.
Migration and displacements are quite common for both men
and women which leads to permanent and temporary
displacements during disasters. Mostly women get affected
when they migrate to urban areas where they face unhealthy
situations, lack of sanitation, clean drinking water shows some
of the direct impact on women. The urban poverty raises due
to the lack of shelter providing better policies will improve their
lives of the people. More likely it could benefit poor women
who live in urban areas as they are freely burdened by
responsibilities of child rearing, income generation and
managing the household.
Young women in slums comparing with non-slum
counterparts majority of them have children at an earlier age
with and extended family. Especially these women stay at
home to take care of children, elderly and household activities
limit them in seeking employment opportunity. When there is a
disaster or conflict forced displacement takes place which is
very much visible. In the recent years it has increased forced
migration and displacement towards cities and urban areas.xiii
Household composition
The family compositions always decreases when there is
a natural disaster which sometimes leads to loss of family
members, women are mostly vulnerable during displacements
there is arise of female headed family where they get limited
resources, division of labour, livelihood insecurity, etc.
Conflict and violence
Conflict and violence would arise when there is huge
competition in finding natural resources lie food, fodder and
water. These conflicts sometimes apply gender inequalities
among women ,mostly men are killed and injured while
Volume-04, Issue-05,May-2019 RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary
RRIJM 2015, All Rights Reserved 213 | Page
protecting their family members. This sometimes leads to
female headed families and they face the violence of rape, assault,etc. Even in relief homes they face threat of violence.
Figure:1.2-Fish bone Diagram on Impact of Climate Change on Women
5. Protocols and Agenda over Climate Change on Women
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol marked the first international
signposting of the environmental and social injustices that
climate change brings. Women are 14 times more likely to die
in climate change-related disasters from not being able to swim
or living in inadequate and poorly constructed homes. In
countries where women’s rights are compromised, climate-
related disaster mortality rates are always higher for women
than men. Women are more likely to experience greater
negative impacts in the aftermath of such events, due to:
Increased workload caring for family and working,
Difficulty in finding paid employment in the formal
sector,
Violence and harassment when relocating homes,
Limited property and land ownership, all of which
reduces their ability to recover.
The more gradual impact on climate change are also
fuelling migration, and are expected to displace over 250
million between 2007 and 2050. An estimate that 80% of global
refugees are women, weakening their existing support
systems. Of the women who are left behind, they have to walk
further to find increasingly scarce fuel and water and take up
several jobs to provide for the family. Many seek informal
extra-marital relationships and children enter for employment in
the unorganized sector to provide some economic stability and
prone towards sexual and domestic violence.xiv
The Beijing Agenda for Global Action on Gender-Sensitive
Disaster Risk Reduction came with an agenda to attain nine
goals before 2015.
Beijing Agenda for Global Action on Gender-Sensitive
Disaster Risk Reduction
1. Focusing on gender analysis and gender
mainstreaming with the increase of political
commitment with the collaboration of ministries.
Cooperating in reducing climate change, poverty and
gender issues through civil societies.
2. Reviewing laws, policies, plans, budgets and taking
necessary action against gender issues through
developmental policies.
3. Taking administrative measures through various
policies and link them between disasters, climate
change reduction through gender perspective.
4. Developing gender sensitive indicators through
collecting gender statistics on the impact of disasters,
assessments on vulnerability and risk.
5. Reducing disaster making awareness through public
media on gender sensitivity, vulnerability and risk
reduction through gender specific needs.
6. To study on disaster, risk reduction, climate change
with gender sensitivity with the support of research
institutions.
7. Including development policy making to prevent
disasters and make assessments to prevent poor
becoming poorer.
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8. Making equal participation of men and women in
preparing them to disaster preparedness through
capacity building and training.
9. Enabling gender mainstreaming among all the
development sectors through various capacity training
to professional organisation communication, local
bodies, etc.xv
Women’s Key Demands for COP21:Paris Agreement 2015
1. The agreement must ensure human rights, gender
equality, and rights of indigenous peoples, equity,
food security, integrity and resilience.
2. 2.New approaches towards gender sensitiveness,
responsibility and transparency.
3. 3.Gender responsive transfer of safe Technology and
development for people and the environment.
4. 4.Gender responsive public funds without ceiling
should be provided each and every year 50:50 for five
years for developed countries.xvi
6. Conclusion
Climate change is the major challenges of environment in
the day to day world. It affects both men and women without
any forms of discrimination. Though both are affected in the
clutches of climate change women are mostly affected which is
always compared by their vulnerability. Women in the whole
world do not have much assets compared with men, mostly all
the assets are owned by men. When men try to conquer the
nature it sometimes shows negative impacts on women. As
they are jealous to incorporate higher amount of assets by the
name of encroaching river beds, streams, forests and other
natural resources which leads to the depletion of nature. This
reflects on women during a natural disaster where women are
forced to migrate and are vulnerable in nature. On the other
side the developed nations impose their globalization ethics
over the developing nations through the form of multinational
corporations which are involve in mining, digging which affects
environment and brings indirect impact over women. The
impacts on climate change-drought, flood, increasing diseases,
food scarcity, bad weather, excessively affect the world’s 1.3
billion poor, in which the majority of them are women. It is
essential that the role of government and civil societies to
come forward in combating climate change and protect nature
as well as to make an end to women vulnerability.
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