Prakriti and Jill: What's gender got to do with it? got to do with it?

Today was Gender Day at COP21. There were a multitude of speakers throughout the day discussing how to bridge the gender gap to create climate justice. Here is a brief summary of what we learned today!

Pra and Jill excited for gender day!

Don't mind if I do

Why do we need to integrate gender into climate change mitigation and adaptation?
Women are underrepresented in climate change and women’s capabilities are underestimated. Examples include: 

• Indigenous women have a close relationship with the environment. Tuhi Martukaw, an indigenous woman from Taiwan, spoke of how her people have been adapting to a changing climate for years, specifically they grow different crops depending on the season and know what crops grow better in what weather conditions and are able to change their production habits as the weather changes.
• Women are pillars of their families and often play an important role in educating their children as well as other family members. Furthermore, women from developing countries usually act as the food provider and water collector in their families. When women’s voices are not integrated into community decisions, they can face interruptions in their daily lives that negatively affect the community. For example, Terai, Nepal is a highly flood-prone region. In order to prevent excessive damage due to flooding, the government and companies built flood barriers. While this barrier has protected the community from floods, it has also created an additional challenge because now, women have to climb over the flood barriers to get to their closest source of clean water. This challenge could have been easily solved by involving these women in community decision making procedures.

Tuhi Marktukaw, Taiwan

What are some solutions? 
Women across the globe are coming up with innovative ways to make their voices heard in order to both mitigate and adapt to climate change.  Examples include: 

• Marina Sophia Flevotomas has created culturally relevant educational artwork to teach women about health issues and climate change issues.
• Another method for women to combat climate change is by grouping together. Women across Latin America are creating women’s groups dedicated to combating climate change. By creating women's groups, they are able to mobilize even more members of their communities to spread important messages about climate change within and beyond their families.
• The director of Redd Mujeres (Network of Women) spoke of how women have to come together to demand that the world stops destroying the environment and she emphasized that they are not going to stop until action is taken. Banding together makes women’s voices louder. 
• Modern technology can also assist women in their fight against climate change. In Taiwan there are two different phone apps being used by women. One focuses on pollution monitoring and is used primarily by women and their children. The other app was created to help deal with Typhoons. After a Typhoon occurs it is very difficult to find fresh produce and to make up for the loss of produce farmers increase pesticides and fertilizer to produce more food faster. As climate change worsens, typhoons are becoming more frequent. This app allows women to locate healthy food and learn if the food is being produced organically.

For entertainment purposes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCBttS_y7lE