Climate change a nest for gender inequality

As 85% of people who die from disasters are women

WOMEN are more vulnerable climate change effects than men.

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Climate change has proven not only to be an environmental issue but to be a very socioeconomic one- hence it is said to be one of the encouragers for gender inequality.

The World Bank described climate change as the significant variation of average weather conditions becoming, for example, warmer, wetter or drier- over several decades or longer. It is the longer-term trend that differentiates climate change from natural weather variability.

The recurrent storms, torrential rains and longer-than-usual dry seasons which the country has been recently facing are part of climate change disasters.

According to the London School of Economics study which examined natural disasters that had occurred in 141 countries from 1981-2002; natural disasters lower the life expectancy of women, and as the disaster intensifies, so too does this effect.

The study also revealed that 85 per cent of people who die from disasters are women. Furthermore, the study concluded that in societies where the inequality between women and men is vast, women are more likely to die from disaster. The opposite was also found to be true: the more equality exists, the more gender-neutral natural disasters appear to be.

When contacted for comment, Minky Groenewald, a Climate Change Specialist in Eswatini, said females continued to lag behind males in various socioeconomic aspects, saying nonetheless, the Government of Eswatini had undertaken numerous initiatives to eliminate gender gaps and ensure the full and coherent participation of all genders in achieving national objectives.

“One of these key initiatives is the adoption of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act in 2018. Women, as well as children and the elderly, are globally more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and Eswatini is no exception. It is therefore imperative for the long-term benefits of societal stability and health that gender balance and equity are resolved,” explained Groenewald.

Explaining how climate change affected the household, the Climate Change Unit Official first unpacked the Eswatini Household Expenditure Survey (EHIES), saying it showed that in 2018 the gross national income per capita for females was 5.72 while for males stood at 9.64.

“This disparity could mean women have less opportunity to shape their lives and are engaged in less economically productive activities than men.

This implies that women in Eswatini are less able to immediately adapt to climatic change-related shocks or disasters. In terms of education, literacy indicators by gender were also provided from 2007 to 2018.

“Differentials between men and women show that literacy levels for females have been consistently higher than their male counterparts over the years.

The literacy rate for women

increased from 95.3 per cent in 2014 to 96.7 per cent in 2018 whilst for men it increased from 92.1 per cent in 2014 to 94.3 per cent in 2018. The gender parity index at the primary school level (enrolment) has also evened out from 0.92 in 2012 to 1.01 in 2014, which indicates greater parity between females and males at the primary level.”

Groenewald further explained that the proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament and local government significantly increased from six per cent in 2013 to 22 per cent in 2018. She revealed that according to the National survey commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, the difference between men and women lies in the fact that, as much as both men and women lived in the same household, most households depend on women for daily resilience.

“As a result of social norms, everyday roles of the two groups vary, with women having the primary responsibility for providing water, sanitation, food preparation, farming, and child care.

The impact of climate change has increased the burden as women carry out their household duties.

“With the drying of rivers and loss of forests due to prolonged dry spells, women now travel long distances to seek water and firewood. There are increased risks of attacks on these longer journeys, as well as the heavy strain of transporting water long-distance (especially if they are with a child).”

“Rural and uneducated women often depend on the environment for subsistence farming and income, and therefore climate change often burdens women more than men in this regard, and will continue to do so as the impacts become more severe.”