Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Women and the Environment: Southern Perspectives and Global Implications

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Gender Equality

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Definitions

Global South as a term largely denotes the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. It belongs to a set of phrases such as “Third World” and “Periphery” that refer to regions outside Europe and North America, largely developing nations. Others argue that the phrase Global South serves more than a metaphor for underdevelopment (Dados and Connell 2012). Nature or the environment refers to the totality of living and nonliving matter existing naturally. This includes the interrelations between all living organisms, climate, the weather, and natural resources that influence human existence and economic sustenance. A woman refers to the standard adult female human being and biological parallel to the man (Venes 2017). This term also embraces girls who are the female children or adolescents.

Introduction

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Women

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development revolves around 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which form an...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ahmed FE (2008) Microcredit, Men, and Masculinity. NWSA J 20(2):122–155. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/246760

  • Bell K (2016) Bread and roses: a gender perspective on environmental justice and public health. Int J Environ Res Public Health 13(10):1005, 2–5. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13101005

  • Beneria B, Lourdes F, Gunseli M (2016) Gender, development and globalization: economics as if all people mattered. Taylor & Francis Group, New York, p 116

    Google Scholar 

  • Bongaarts J (2016) Slow down population growth. Nature 530(7591):409–412. https://doi.org/10.1038/530409a. PMID 26911766. London

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw S (2015) Gender, development and disasters. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham

    Google Scholar 

  • Breiting S, Wickenberg P (2010) The progressive development of environmental education in Sweden and Denmark. Environ Educ Res 16(1):9–37. Democracy and values in environmental and sustainability education: research contributions from Denmark and Sweden. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620903533221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brody A, Demetriades J, Esplen E (2008) Gender and climate change: mapping the linkages. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton

    Google Scholar 

  • Buechler S, Hanson A-MS (eds) (2015) A political ecology of women, water and global environmental change, 1st edn. Routledge, Abingdon/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler J, Rotberg RI, Adams J (1977) The black homelands of South Africa: the political and economic development of Bophuthatswana and Kwa-Zulu. University of California Press, Berkeley, p 250

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell C (2007) Return of the population growth factor. Science 315(5818):1501–1503. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1140057. PMID 17363647

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carney MA (2014) The biopolitics of “food insecurity”: towards a critical political ecology of the body in studies of women’s transnational migration. J Polit Ecol 21(1):18

    Google Scholar 

  • Carvajal-Escobar Y, Garcia-Vargas M, Quintero-Angel M (2008) Women’s role in adapting to climate change and variability. Adv Geosciences 14(2008):277–280. https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-14-277-2008

  • Chowdhry P (2011) Reduction of violence against women: property ownership & economic independence in rural Haryana (PDF). UN Women

    Google Scholar 

  • Claus CA, Osterhoudt S, Baker L, Cortesi L, Hebdon C, Zhang A, Dove M (2015) Disaster, degradation, dystopia. In: Bryant RL (ed) The international handbook of political ecology. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, pp 291–304

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Cundill G, Thondhlana G, Sisitka L, Shackleton S, Blore M (2013) Land claims and the pursuit of co-management on four protected areas in South Africa. Land Use Policy 35:175–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dados N, Connell R (2012) The global south. Contexts 11(1):12–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504212436479. ISSN: 1536-5042

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dai A (2010) Drought under global warming: a review. Wiley Online Library, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Dankelman I, Alam K, Ahmed WB, Gueye YD, Fatema N, Mensah-Kutin R (2008) Gender, climate change, and human security: lessons from Bangladesh, Ghana, and Senegal. The Women’s Environment and Development Organization, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • De Schutter O (2013) The agrarian transition and the “feminization” of agriculture. Conference paper 37, Food sovereignty: a critical dialogue. Yale University, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Denton F (2002) Climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation: why does gender matter? Gend Dev 10(2002):10–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donkor FK, Howarth C, Ebhuoma E, Daly M, Vaughan C, Pretorius L, Mambo J, MacLeod D, Kythreotis A, Jones L, Grainger S, Golding N, Anderson AA (2019) Climate services and communication for development: the role of early career researchers in advancing the debate. Environ Commun 13(5):561–566. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2019.1596145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doss CR (2014) Data needs for gender analysis in agriculture. In: Quisumbing A, Meinzen-Dick R, Raney T, Croppenstedt A, Behrman JA, Peterman A (eds) Gender in agriculture and food security: closing the knowledge gap. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Doss CR (2017) Women and agricultural productivity: reframing the issues. Dev Policy 36(1):35–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doss CR, Kovarik C, Peterman A, Quisumbing A, Van den Bold M (2015) Gender inequalities in ownership and control of land in Africa: myth and reality. Agric Econ 46:403–434. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elmhirst R (2011) Introducing new feminist political ecologies. Geoforum 42(2):129–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enarson EP (2012) Women confronting natural disaster: from vulnerability to resilience, 1st edn. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher M, Chaudhury M, McCusker B (2010) Do forests help rural households adapt to climate variability? Evidence from Southern Malawi. World Dev 38(9): 1241–1250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2010.03.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) (2012) The role of women in agriculture. ESA working paper no 11-02

    Google Scholar 

  • Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) (2013) Empowering farmers to reduce pesticide risks. FAO Regional IPM/Pesticide Risk Reduction Programme in Asia, Bangkok. FAO, Rome. http://v1.vegetableipmasia.org/docs/Empowering%20Farmers%20To%20Reduce%20Pesticide%20Risks%2028Oct.pdf

  • Gibson-Graham JK, Cameron J, Healy S (2013) Take back the economy: an ethical guide for transforming our communities. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis/London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson L (2015) Shoes in the seaweed and bottles on the beach: global garbage and women’s oral histories of socio-environmental change in coastal Yucatan. In: Buechler S, Hanson A-M (eds) A political ecology of women, water and global environmental change. Routledge, Abingdon, pp 165–184

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Harcourt W, Nelson IL (2015) Practicing feminist political ecologies: moving beyond the ‘green economy’. Zed Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris LM (2015) Hegemonic waters and rethinking natures otherwise. In: Harcourt W, Nelson IL (eds) Practicing feminist political ecologies: moving beyond the ‘green economy’. Zed Books, London, pp 157–181

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins R, Ojeda D (2011) Gender and environment: critical tradition and new challenges. Environ Plan D 29(2):237–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirao K (2016) Environment and gender. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss706

  • Hoffman MT (2015) Environmental change in twentieth-century South Africa and its implications for land reform. In: Cousins B, Walker C (eds) Land divided, land restored: land reform in South Africa for the 21st century. Jacana Media, Johannesburg, pp 56–67

    Google Scholar 

  • Huynh PTA, Resurrección BP (2014) Women’s differentiated vulnerability and adaptations to climate-related agricultural water scarcity in rural Central Vietnam. Clim Dev 6(3):226–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2007) Summary for policymakers. In: Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M, Chen Z, Marquis M, Averyt KB, Tignor M, Miller HL (eds) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Jonsson-Arora S (2011) Virtue and vulnerability: discourses on women, gender and climate change. Glob Environ Chang 21(2):744–751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.01.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamis M, Saiful M (2006) Tsunami response and women. Presented at the international conference on development in Aceh at the National University of Malaysia. Organized by PKAUKM, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

    Google Scholar 

  • Kettel B (1996) Women, health and the environment. Soc Sci Med 42(10):1367–1379. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(95)00285-5

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leach M (2015) Gender equality and sustainable development. Routledge, Abingdon

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Levin K, Cashore B, Bernstein S, Auld G (2012) Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change. Policy Sci 45:123–152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-012-9151-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loftus A (2012) Everyday environmentalism: creating an urban political ecology. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lutz KC (2011) Global human capital: integrating education and population. Science 333(6042):587–592. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1206964. PMID 21798940. Bibcode:2011Sci…333..587L

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lutz W (2017) How population growth relates to climate change. Proc Natl Acad Sci 114(46):12103–12105. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1717178114

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacGregor S (2010) Gender and climate change: from impacts to discourses. J Indian Ocean Reg 6(2): 223–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • May VM (2014) “Speaking into the void”? Intersectionality critiques and epistemic backlash. Hypatia 29(1):94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McFerson HM (2008) Poverty among women in sub-Saharan Africa: a review of selected issues. J Int Women’s Stud 11(2008):50–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2006) Ecosystems and human-wellbeing – biodiversity synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Moosa CS, Tuana N (2013) Mapping a research agenda concerning gender and climate change: a review of the literature.  https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12085

  • Morrice S (2012) Heartache and hurricane Katrina: recognising the influence of emotion in post-disaster return decisions. Area 45(1):33–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Nustad KG (2015) Creating Africas: struggles over nature, conservation and land. Hurst Publishers, London, p 224

    Google Scholar 

  • Peet R, Robbins P, Watts M (eds) (2011) Global political ecology, 1st edn. Routledge, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Perch L, Tandon N (2015) Farming, mining and caring for the land: why a critical feminist gender discourse on rights and resources is more important now than ever before. Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. Reflects on women’s experiences in the agriculture and mining sectors and sustainable development through a feminist critique. http://www.osisa.org/buwa/economic-justice/regional/farming-mining-and-caring-land-why-critical-feminist-gender-discourse

  • Resurrección BP (2017) Gender and environment from ‘women, environment and development’ to feminist political ecology. In: MacGregor S (ed) Routledge handbook of gender and environment. Routledge, Abingdon, Part I, Chapter 4, pp 71–85

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Resurrección BP, Sajor EE (2015) Gender, floods and mobile subjects: a post-disaster view. In: Lund R, Doneys P, Resurreccion BP (eds) Gendered entanglements: revisiting gender in rapidly changing Asia. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen, pp 207–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau DE (2015) A situated view of feminist political ecology from my networks, roots and territories. In: Harcourt W, Nelson IL (eds) Practicing feminist political ecologies: moving beyond the ‘green economy’. Zed Books, London, pp 29–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Shiva V (2005) The impoverishment of the environment: women and children last. In: Environmental philosophy: from animal rights to radical ecology, 4th edn. Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh K (2015) Women and their role in natural resources: a study in Western Himalayas. Int J Res Granthaalayah 3(1):128–138. Highlights the role of women and traditional activities in natural resource conservation. http://granthaalayah.com/Articles/Vol3Iss10/12_IJRG15_B09_69.pdf

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steady FC (2014) Women, climate change, and liberation in Africa. Race Gend Class 21:312–333. ProQuest 1690372156

    Google Scholar 

  • Sundberg J (2017) Feminist political ecology. In: Richardson DB (ed) International encyclopedia of geography: people, the earth, environment and technology. Wiley-Blackwell & Association of American Geographers, Malden

    Google Scholar 

  • Thondhlana G, Shackleton S, Blignaut J (2015) Local institutions, actors, and natural resource governance in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and surrounds, South Africa. Land Use Policy 47:121–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tong S, Botts TF (2013) Ecofeminism. In: Feminist thought: a more comprehensive introduction, vol 210, 5th edn. Westview Press, pp 205–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Tschakert P (2012) From impacts to embodied experiences: tracing political ecology in climate change research. Geogr Tidsskr Dan J Geogr 112(2):144–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Tschakert P, Tutu R, Alcaro A (2013) Embodied experiences of environmental and climatic changes in landscapes of everyday life in Ghana. Emot Space Soc 7:13–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uche T, Okpara L, Stringer C, Akhtar-Schuster M (2019) Gender and land degradation neutrality: a cross-country analysis to support more equitable practices. Land Degrad Dev 30(11):1368–1378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Udas PB, Zwarteveen MZ (2010) Can water professionals meet gender goals? A case study of the Department of Irrigation in Nepal. Gend Dev 18(1):87–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNFCC (2019) Introduction to gender and climate change. https://unfccc.int/gender

  • UNISDR (2008) Gender perspectives: integrating disaster risk reduction into climate change adaptation: good practices and lessons learned. www.unisdr.org/…Gender_Perspectives_Integrating…/Gender_Perspectives_Integrating_DRR_CC_Good%20Practices.pdf

  • United Nations (UN) (2010) Chapter 11: Women and the environment. In: Global women’s issues: women in the world today, extended version. https://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/docs/pdfs/10-50143_(e)_(desa)dialogues_ecosoc_achieving_gender_equality_women_empowerment.pdf

  • United Nations (UN) (2017) Gender, the environment and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific. United Nations, ESCAP, Bangkok

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN) (2020) About the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

  • United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2007) Human development report 2007/2008: fighting climate change: human solidarity in a divided world. http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/

  • United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2009) Resource guide on gender and climate change. http://undp.org/go/cms-service/download/asset/?asset_id=1854911

  • United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2011) Africa Adaption Program (AAP) experiences: gender and climate change. Discussion paper on key challenges to reducing gender-based vulnerability, gender sensitive approaches to AAP, and continuing efforts. http://content-ext.undp.org/aplaws_publications/3253640/AAP_Discussion_Paper1_English.pdf

  • UNWOMEN (2019) Women and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs

  • Venes D (2017) Taber’s cyclopedic medical dictionary. F.A. Davis, Philadelphia, p 2539. ISBN: 0803659407

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts MJ (2015) Now and then: the origins of political ecology and the rebirth of adaptation as a form of thought. In: Perreault TA, Bridge G, McCarthy J (eds) Routledge handbook of political ecology. Routledge, New York, pp 19–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Watkins K (2007) Human Development Report 2006 Published for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/267/hdr06-complete.pdf

  • Wescoat JLJ (2015) Political ecology of risk, hazards, vulnerability, and capacities. In: Perreault TA, Bridge G, McCarthy J (eds) Routledge handbook of political ecology. Routledge, New York, pp 293–302

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittle R, Walker M, Medd W, Mort M (2012) Flood of emotions: emotional work and long-term disaster recovery. Emot Space Soc 5(1):60–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson K (2017) In the name of reproductive rights: race, neoliberalism and the embodied violence of population policies. New Form 91(91):50–68. https://doi.org/10.3898/NEWF:91.03.2017

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa (UNISA), Johannesburg, South Africa

    Felix Kwabena Donkor

  2. Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Chattogram, Bangladesh

    Ram Krishna Mazumder

  3. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Ram Krishna Mazumder

Authors
  1. Felix Kwabena Donkor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ram Krishna Mazumder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. European School of Sustainability, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Center for Neuroscience & Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  4. HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Amanda Lange Salvia

  5. International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tony Wall

Section Editor information

  1. University Of Chester, Chester, United Kingdom

    Tamara Hunt

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Donkor, F.K., Mazumder, R.K. (2020). Women and the Environment: Southern Perspectives and Global Implications. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_127-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_127-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70060-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70060-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation