Gender as fundamental to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction

This chapter discusses the importance of structures and power in the context of gender. Much of the gender literature continues to focus on women, while what is needed for studying gender is an intersectionality approach. Gender is important “because women and men play different roles in the household and because they must follow different gendered roles, they are differently affected by climate”. The combination of different political and social structural factors affecting daily life is at the heart of addressing gender within an intersectionality approach. Susan L. Cutter argues that there has been an increase in understanding gender issues and disparities. At the policy level, Joane Nagel argues that women have been underrepresented in climate negotiations, such as the global climate change conferences. The chapter looks at the complex interactions of gender with disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and vulnerability.