Sara Cowan argues that the effects of climate breakdown will disproportionately affect women. Climate Change cannot be seen as
gender neutral, but the Scottish government has failed to address this.
A Just Transition must reimagine who our economy works for.
That includes a move away from the neo-liberal market-driven dominance that we’ve witnessed in the last half century, towards an economy that protects both people and planet. This shift provides the opportunity to not only move from a carbon intensive economy but also work to tackle structural inequalities that continue to hold so many people back and perpetuate women’s inequality.
Climate change is not gender neutral.
The recent heatwaves in Europe have also shown women, particularly those on low incomes, being hit harder by the impacts. From greater risk of health complications in high temperatures, rising likelihood of domestic violence associated with temperature rises, to the knock-on impact of transport cancellations or school closures on unpaid care.
Globally, women are more likely to go hungry when food is short at home. They are also more likely to rely upon unsafe work when harvests fail. During droughts women are more likely to be walking further to collect water, often at risk to their own safety.
Scotland is no different. Yet action at the national level is failing to make the connection between climate change and women’s inequality. The Scottish Government’s Climate Action Plan and Just Transition Plans make some recognition of data on societal inequalities. However, they fail to translate data into concrete action, particularly in relation to tackling women’s inequality. Nor do the plans consider women’s unseen circumstances and their disproportionate share of unpaid labour, when designing appropriate, gen der-informed, policy responses.
The risk is that, by failing to see women, actions taken to respond to climate change will not only miss an opportunity to tackle women’s inequality but also risk further entrenching it and ultimately leading to less effective climate policy. For example, if changes to school timetables and closures due to extreme weather events became the norm, this will impact on women’s share of unpaid care, or if health research and advice fail to acknowledge the specific risks that higher temperatures pose to women their needs will not be met.
Let’s look at an important area in the just transition – transport. There are clear gendered differences in the use of transport systems, stemming from the reality that women take on a disproportionate amount of unpaid care across our society, and their use of public transport reflects that. Women are more likely to use transport out side the 9-5 commuting time and in cross city routes, rather than the more typical outskirts-to-city-centre routes that men are more likely to take; women are more likely to use buses than trains and women are more likely to have multi-stop journeys. Women also experience different views of safety from men, and this is heightened for women from black and ethnic minority communities who experience both sexist and racist abuse on public transport.
These issues are recognised in Scottish Government literature but action to respond to them fall short of addressing the problem. We hope spending on public transport will increase in the coming years to support the shift away from private car use. However, if this spending is not invested in ways that support the diversity of uses and life experiences then the benefits will be unevenly felt.
There is a need for an expanded view on what investment in green jobs, and the nature of these, can look like across the country. The UK Women’s Budget Group research has found that care creates more jobs per pound than construction or energy. Those jobs are already low-emission, and a society that meets its care needs well is one that has begun to organise itself around wellbeing rather than consumption, thereby addressing some of the drivers of climate change.
What should happen? The Scottish Women’s Budget Group has been calling on the government to ensure that gender budgeting is part of the decision-making process. This approach would high light any potential policy shortcomings, inequalities and differences, thereby promoting gender-informed decisions that tackle inequality.
Through our participatory work, women across the country have shared both the challenges and hopes they have for improved transport systems, better access to energy efficiency schemes, and enhanced food security. These are voices that need to be heard.
Most recently, these discussions have looked at the intersections of gender and race, highlighting concerns that, as we move to a much-needed greener economy, greater consideration should be given to unpaid care and housework roles. For instance, if tasks involving repair, re-use or recycle, as well as cooking seasonably end up falling on women, reinforcing existing inequalities in terms of who continues carrying the burden of unpaid labour.
The just transition offers an opportunity to tackle long-term inequalities and recognise the role of care in our economy. It provides an intersectional framework to help reshape the conversation around climate action. The Just Transition Commission have made this clear in their reports.
However, government responses to date appear more narrowly focused on the existing, male-dominated, energy industry rather than the wider communities that need to be part of the change. Both elements are vital for the just transition to succeed.
The climate movement, women’s and equality organisations need to work together to widen the vision of a just transition and scrutinise the actions taken by public bodies, ensuring that the opportunities presented by this shift in the economy can be fully realised