ABSTRACT
The importance of using a gender lens in analysing social and power relations within poverty–environment linkages was highlighted in Chapter 1. The recognition of the nature and place of gender in influencing access to resources and decision-making has evolved over many years of reflection on women, and then gender, and development. This chapter sets out the evolution of thinking on gender and development, from the Women in Development perspective of the 1970s to Gender and Development of the 1990s and the ‘feminization of poverty’, moving on to look specifically at women/gender and environment debates within a development context. The chapter then examines literature on gender perspectives within three natural resource settings: land, forestry and fisheries. These have been chosen as there are distinct literatures and issues concerning gender and these natural resource settings that illustrate the more generic points made in earlier sections. Given the importance of climate change in considering poverty–environment linkages, key analytical issues in literature on gender and climate change are then touched on. The chapter concludes with a summary of key points arising from the diverse and considerable literature within the broad area of gender, environment and poverty.
