Education - A Crucial Piece of the Climate Justice and Gender Equality Puzzle

Mar 7, 2022 | Susan Hopgood
View Original

For decades we have mobilised across the world and have worked towards gender equality, and increasingly over the last few years to address climate injustice. However, both fights have often been waged separately with far too little attention given to the critical areas where they overlap.

This International Women’s Day puts a welcome spotlight on the common ground: on the ways in which climate change disproportionately impacts women and girls and on how advancing gender equality can empower women to take the lead in the fight for climate justice. In this complex landscape of intersecting vulnerabilities, education is a vital part of any effective solution.

Victims many times over: Climate and gender injustices

The gendered impact of climate change is not anecdotal. It is well documented and frankly, infuriating. The countries that contribute least to the problem shoulder the heaviest burden of the climate emergency, while the countries that created the problem and got rich in the process, can afford the luxury of a piecemeal response. Women and girls from marginalised backgrounds and in the poorest communities are the most vulnerable and feel the impact most acutely, not least because of the traditional gender roles they have been assigned since birth.