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Book Details
Abstract
Cities across the globe are growing fast. Today many are environmental nightmares with polluted air, excessive energy consumption and an absence of nature. But big cities don’t have to mean a dystopian future. They can be turned around to be powerhouses of well-being and environmental stability – if we empower women.
This book is a unique collaboration between C40 and Friends of the Earth showcasing pioneering voices in the environmental and feminist movements. This book reveals just how women’s empowerment is critical to environmental sustainability. This book is a rallying call – for the planet, for women, for everyone.
For more than forty years Friends of the Earth has seen that the well-being of people and planet go hand in hand – and it’s been the inspiration for our campaigns. Together with thousands of people like you we’ve secured safer food and water, defended wildlife and natural habitats, championed the move to clean energy and acted to keep our climate stable.
This book forms part of our three-year research project Big Ideas Change the World, which aims to inspire a new campaigning journey for Friends of the Earth and others. It is collaboratively researching ten topics, including the future of cities, innovation, women’s empowerment and the history of change. It starts from the premise that humans are ingenious and have enormous capacity for collaboration and empathy, even though right now we are doing some pretty stupid things.
Big Ideas Change the World will identify what needs to change to focus some of humanity’s amazing abilities on solving the challenges we face and building a brighter future for everyone.
Find out more and get involved at www.foe.co.uk/bigideas
‘This book is a wake-up call for the environmental movement. It shows conclusively that women’s empowerment is essential to achieving environmental sustainability. This has been a blind-spot for us for far too long. Under my leadership, I am determined that Friends of the Earth will take this issue seriously, build campaigning alliances with women's groups and mainstream gender equality throughout our work.'
Craig Bennett, CEO of Friends of the Earth
‘You can’t save the planet without equality … We need a new economics informed by the larger picture, an economy that puts women and the Earth at the centre.'
Vandana Shiva
‘Hope is a potent catalyst. And while our failure to adequately appreciate and guard against ecological destruction fills me with frustration, my hope is not meek or weak. It is urgent and raging. It’s a hope that believes a better world – away from cyclical war, the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor – is possible.’
Caroline Lucas MP
'…this book is relevant to a wide audience (arguably everyone): to inform our understanding of discrimination against women, and to provide inspiring insight and encouragement into opportunities for achieving not only gender equality but environmental sustainability too.'
Environment and Urbanization
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front cover | Front cover | ||
| About Friends of the Earth | ii | ||
| Title | iii | ||
| Copyright | iv | ||
| Contents | v | ||
| Acknowledgements | ix | ||
| About the Contributors | x | ||
| Jenny Hawley: Introduction | 1 | ||
| 1: Diane Elson: University of Essex: Women’s Empowerment and Environmental Sustainability in the Context of International UN Agreements | 11 | ||
| Introduction | 11 | ||
| International UN Agreements on the Environment and Women’s Empowerment \r | 11 | ||
| Meanings of Empowerment and Sustainability | 14 | ||
| Green Economy: Gender Equitable and Environmentally Sustainable? | 16 | ||
| Conclusions | 19 | ||
| 2: Wanjira Maathai: Green Belt Movement, Kenya: Women as Drivers of Forest Restoration to Combat Climate Change | 21 | ||
| What Does Restoration Mean for Africa? | 22 | ||
| How Do We Achieve the Restoration Target in the Declaration? | 23 | ||
| From International Commitment to Real Action | 26 | ||
| 3: Lyla Mehta and Melissa Leach: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex: Why Do Gender Equality and Sustainability Go Hand in Hand? | 28 | ||
| Gender Inequality and Patterns of Unsustainability | 28 | ||
| Whose Anthropocene and Who Sets the Boundaries? | 29 | ||
| Green Economies: Business as Usual? | 31 | ||
| Pathways to Gender Equality and Sustainability | 34 | ||
| 4: Caroline Lucas: UK Green Party MP: Is there a Specific Role for Women in Helping to Achieve Environmental Sustainability through Politics? | 38 | ||
| Women and Leadership | 41 | ||
| Collaboration | 43 | ||
| Deeds Not Words | 45 | ||
| Feeling as a Catalyst | 46 | ||
| 5: Susan Buckingham: Feminist Geographer, Brunel University: The Institutionalisation and Masculinisation of Environmental Knowledge\r | 49 | ||
| Institutions of Education | 50 | ||
| Environmental Research | 52 | ||
| Institutional Working Practices and Decision-Making | 53 | ||
| Key Intervention | 57 | ||
| 6: Yvonne Orengo: Andrew Lees Trust: Media Empowering Women in Southern Madagascar | 58 | ||
| Cattle are More Important than Women | 59 | ||
| Life in the Androy | 59 | ||
| Talking About Inequality | 60 | ||
| Barriers to Speaking Out | 61 | ||
| Village Voices: Opening Up Debate | 62 | ||
| Women Find their Voice | 63 | ||
| Empowering Women in Managing Natural Resources and Sexual Health | 64 | ||
| Last Word | 66 | ||
| 7: Julie A. Nelson: Economist, University of Massachusetts Boston: Empowering a Balanced and Useful Economics of Sustainability: The Role of Gender | 68 | ||
| A More Subtle Relation Between Gender and Sustainability | 68 | ||
| The State of Mainstream Economics | 69 | ||
| Feminist Critiques of (Social) Science | 72 | ||
| The Myth of the Machine | 72 | ||
| A Necessary Intervention: Reinventing Economics | 74 | ||
| One More Note on Gender | 76 | ||
| Last Words | 76 | ||
| 8: Anna Fitzpatrick: Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London: The Role of Fashion in Bringing About Social and Ecological Change\r | 78 | ||
| Why Fashion? | 79 | ||
| 9: Celia Alldridge: Activist with the World March of Women: How the Defence of the Commons and Territories Has Become a Core Part of Feminist, Anti-Capitalist Struggles | 89 | ||
| Women on the March for Autonomy Over Our Bodies and Self-Determination of Our Territories … Until We Are All Free! | 89 | ||
| Women Reflecting on and Strengthening their Relationship with Nature and the Environment | 90 | ||
| The People’s Summit 2012: Feminist Resistance Against the Green Economy and False Market Solutions | 92 | ||
| World March of Women 4th International Action: A Year of Feminist Struggle for Bodily Autonomy and Territorial Self-Determination | 95 | ||
| WMW Key Documents | 99 | ||
| 10: Vandana Shiva: Philosopher, Activist and Co-Author of Ecofeminism: Hand in Hand: Women’s Empowerment and Sustainability | 101 | ||
| 11: Quinn Bernier, Chiara Kovarik, Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Agnes Quisumbing: International Food Policy Research Institute: Women’s Empowerment in Sustainable Agriculture | 112 | ||
| Gender and Sustainability | 113 | ||
| The WEAI and Sustainability \r | 114 | ||
| Conclusions | 121 | ||
| 12: Isabel Bottoms and Amena Sharaf: Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights: The Impacts of Environmental Mismanagement on Egypt’s Poor\r | 123 | ||
| 13: Nathalie Holvoet and Liesbeth Inberg: University of Antwerp: How Gender-Sensitive are National Adaptation Programmes of Action? Selected Findings from a Desk Review of Thirty-One Sub-Saharan African Countries | 132 | ||
| Introduction | 132 | ||
| Gender and Climate Change: Different Discourses and Approaches | 134 | ||
| Discussion of Findings and Way Forward | 137 | ||
| 14: Shukri Haji Ismail Bandare and Fatima Jibrell: NGO Leaders: Women, Conflict and the Environment in Somali Society | 140 | ||
| Trees for People and the Environment | 142 | ||
| Conflict and the Environment | 143 | ||
| Challenges of Environmental Governance | 144 | ||
| Women and the Environment | 145 | ||
| Gender in Society and Politics | 146 | ||
| 15: Esther Mwangi: Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR): Gender, Participation and Community Forestry: Lessons from Beneath the Canopy | 148 | ||
| Benefits Capture in Gendered NTFP Value Chains in Africa \r | 150 | ||
| Women’s Participation in Emerging Sub-National REDD+ Project Initiatives | 152 | ||
| Gendered Participation in Forest Governance: Insights from the IFRI Global Dataset \r | 153 | ||
| Lessons from Beneath the Canopy: A Synthesis of CIFOR’s Comparative Studies | 155 | ||
| 16: Barbara Stocking: Former CEO of Oxfam GB: Putting Gender Equality at the Heart of Oxfam’s Work | 158 | ||
| Gender Equality in Parity Organisations | 158 | ||
| Delivering for Poor Women | 160 | ||
| Leading Across the World | 163 | ||
| 17: Nidhi Tandon: Networked Intelligence for Development, Canada: From Individual to Communal Rights: Empowering Women for Sustainable Use of Natural Resources | 164 | ||
| When Government Policy Continues to Be Problematic | 165 | ||
| Entry Points for Policy Intervention and Regulation | 168 | ||
| Empowering Women to Reclaim and Advance Community Assets and Rights | 169 | ||
| From Patriarchal Traditions to Gender-Sensitive Common Regimes | 171 | ||
| 18: Maria Mies: Sociologist, Activist and Co-Author of Ecofeminism: Mother Earth | 174 | ||
| Images of the Earth Mother | 176 | ||
| 19: Sarah Fisher: Population and Sustainability Network: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: A Win-Win for Women and Sustainability | 181 | ||
| Revisiting the Population and Sustainability Debate | 181 | ||
| Women and Girls Want and Need Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights | 186 | ||
| Empowering Women and Girls as Agents of Change | 188 | ||
| What Has This Got to Do with Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights | 189 | ||
| Towards a Collaborative Strategy for Linking Environmental Sustainability and Reproductive Rights | 189 | ||
| 20: Kate Metcalf and Colleagues: UK Women’s Environmental Network: The Power of Grassroots Action for Women’s Empowerment and the Environment | 194 | ||
| Past Projects and Successes | 195 | ||
| Current Grassroots Work: The Local Food Project | 198 | ||
| Developing Skills | 200 | ||
| Women’s Role in the Alternative Food Economy: Successes and Constraints | 200 | ||
| Conclusion | 202 | ||
| 21: Marylyn Haines Evans: National Federation of Women’s Institutes: One Hundred Years of Collective Action for Environmental Change | 204 | ||
| 22: Juliet Davenport: CEO of Good Energy: The Impact of Gender Balance in the Renewable Energy Sector | 211 | ||
| 23: Emma Howard Boyd: 30% Club for Women in Business Leadership: More Women in Business for a Sustainable Economy | 219 | ||
| ‘We Cannot Return to the Old Macho Ways’ | 219 | ||
| So What Has Been the Catalyst Behind this Breakthrough? How Have We Improved Outcomes and Moved Away from a Period Where Efforts Exceeded Results? | 221 | ||
| Growing the Female Talent Pipeline Needs to Be High on the Agenda for Every Board and Executive Committee | 223 | ||
| Investors are in a Unique Position to Encourage Companies to Improve their Gender Diversity – But Not Just at Board Level | 224 | ||
| So What Is It that Investors, in Particular, Can Focus On? | 225 | ||
| More Women in Business Makes for Better Business Overall | 226 | ||
| Gender-Diverse Boards Can Help Companies and Stakeholders Alike | 228 | ||
| 24: Fiona Reynolds: Former Director General of the National Trust: Sustainability Is About People\r | 229 | ||
| 25: Cathy Newman: Journalist and TV Presenter for Channel 4 News, UK: Sexism and Gender Equality in British Politics \r | 238 | ||
| 26: Sarah Richardson: Historian, University of Warwick: Mistresses of their Own Destiny: A History of Women’s Empowerment in Nineteenth-Century British Politics\r | 243 | ||
| Women Campaign Against the Slave Trade | 246 | ||
| Female Philanthropy and Politics | 248 | ||
| Lifestyle Politics | 251 | ||
| Notes | 257 | ||
| Back Cover | Back cover |