ABSTRACT
Dominant discourses on climate change adaptation have left little room for
women to articulate their needs, rights, and responsibilities without being
GENDER JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT: LOCAL AND GLOBAL
reduced to victims, a virtuous green consciousness, or responsible caretakers. In
this paper, we examine research indicating that inequality with respect to gender
as well as class, ethnicity, caste, etc. may undermine the potential of individuals,
communities, and societies to be actively involved in and shape the transforma-
tive processes triggered by global environmental change. Undoubtedly, both men
and women are impacted by droughts, floods, and heatwaves, and these impacts
are experienced differently due to distinct roles determined by cultural norms,
the gendered division of labor, and historically rooted practices and power
structures. Such differential vulnerability is indicative of inequalities of power
relations in any society. We first introduce the dominant discourse on climate change adaptation and
the various roles women play in adaptation narratives. Lessons from adaptation
research illustrate that simplistic notions of women as vulnerable victims conceal
deep-rooted inequalities, patterns of marginalization, and unequal power
structures. To acknowledge these complexities and to progress forward, we
then examine whether a rights-based approach could enrich current gender and
climate change work by drawing attention to multiple and interconnected types
of insecurities, and a contextualized understanding of both discriminatory
mechanisms and our mutual fragility. Finally, we explore how rights perspectives
may help to shift the climate change discourse from global managerialism to
human relevance and immediacy, and from rights to empowerment and
responsibilities. We propose a reframing of the rights discourse to one that
stresses transformational change tightly linked to human security and justice as
an obligation for change for all.
