Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Gender and Water in a Changing Climate: Challenges and Opportunities

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Water Security Across the Gender Divide

Part of the book series: Water Security in a New World ((WSEC))

Abstract

Climate change is exacerbating existing water insecurity globally, with significant gender consequences. Changes in water availability, access, scarcity and security play critical roles in shaping the ways that individuals, communities and countries are tackling existing and predicted climate change. Although climate change is already increasing vulnerabilities, marginalisation, and sufferings of many across the world, impacts are unevenly felt across social strata. Intersectionalities of social difference, especially along gender and class lines, differentiate the ways in which impacts of climate change are experienced and responded to. This is particularly evident in water-related productive and reproductive tasks, as climate change is expected to exacerbate both ecological degradation (e.g., water shortages) and water-related natural hazards (e.g., floods, cyclones), thereby transforming gender–water geographies. As such, it becomes imperative to undertake multi-scalar, critical and intersectional analyses to better inform both academic debates and policymaking. Heeding gendered implications of climate change is particularly important as patriarchal norms, inequities, and inequalities often place women and men in differentiated positions in their abilities to respond to and cope with dramatic changes in socioecological relations and changing waterscapes, as well as foregrounds the complex ways in which social power relations operate in communal responses to adaptation strategies that are increasingly proliferating globally. This chapter explores the nexus of gender-water-climate change to demonstrate how different groups of people understand, respond to, and cope with variability and uncertainties in a changing climate to reveal the challenges and prospects that exist. ​

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Adger W, Dessai S, Goulden M, Hulme M, Lorenzoni I, Nelson D, Otto-Naess L, Wolf J, Wreford A (2009) Are there social limits to adaptation to climate change? Clim Chang 93:335–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agarwal B (1992) The gender and environment debate: lessons from India. Fem Stud 18(1):119–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agarwal B (2000) Conceptualizing environmental collective action: why gender matters. Camb J Econ 24:283–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agarwal B (2001) Participatory exclusions, community forestry, and gender: an analysis for South Asia and a conceptual framework. World Dev 29:1623–1648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agostine A, Lizarde R (2012) Gender and climate justice. Development 55(1):90–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed S, Fajber E (2009) Engendering adaptation to climate variability in Gujarat, India. Gend Dev 17(1):33–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arora-Jonsson S (2011) Virtue and vulnerability: discourses on women, gender and climate change. Glob Environ Chang 21(2):744–751

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey I (2008) Geographical work at the boundaries of climate policy: a commentary and complement to Mike Hulme. Trans Inst Br Geogr 33(3):420–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bee B, Biermann M, Tschakert P (2012) Gender, development, and rights-based approaches: lessons for climate change adaptation and adaptive social protection. In: Alston M, Whittenbury K (eds) Research, action, and policy: addressing the gendered impacts of climate change. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 95–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd E (2002) The Noel Kempff project in Bolivia: gender, power, and decision-making in climate mitigation. Gend Dev 10(2):70–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw S (2004) Socio-economic impacts of natural disasters: a gender analysis. United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago

    Google Scholar 

  • Brody A, Demetriades J, Esplen E (2008) Gender and climate change: mapping the linkages: a scoping study on knowledge and caps. BRIDGE, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton

    Google Scholar 

  • Cannon T (2002) Gender and climate hazards in Bangladesh. Gend Dev 10(2):45–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cannon T, Muller-Mann D (2010) Vulnerability, resilience and development discourses in context of climate change. Nat Hazards 55:621–635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carr E (2008) Between structure and agency: livelihoods and adaptation in Ghana’s central region. Glob Environ Chang 18:689–699

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cleaver F, Elson D (1995) Women and water resources: continued marginalisation and new policies. Gatekeeper Series 49, 3–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooke B, Kothari U (2001) Participation: the new tyranny? Zed Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornwall A (2003) Whose voices? Whose choices? Reflections on gender and participatory development. World Dev 31:1325–1342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crow B, Sultana F (2002) Gender, class and access to water: three cases in a poor and crowded delta. Soc Nat Resour 15:709–724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dankelman I (2002) Climate change: learning from gender analysis and women’s experiences of organising for sustainable development. Gend Dev 10(2):21–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dankelman I (2010) Gender and climate change: an introduction. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Dankelman I, Alam K, Bashar Ahmed W, Diagne Gueye Y, Fatema N, Mensah-Kutin R (2008) Gender, climate change and human security: lessons from Bangladesh, Ghana and Senegal. Report prepared for ELIAMEP by The Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) with ABANTU for Development in Ghana, ActionAid Bangladesh and ENDA in Senegal

    Google Scholar 

  • Demetriades J, Esplen E (2008) The gender dimensions of poverty and climate change adaptation. IDS Bull 39:24–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denton F (2002) Climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation: why does gender matter? Gend Dev 10(2):10–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elmhirst R (2011) Introducing new feminist political ecologies. Geoforum 42:129–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enarson E, Fordham M (2001) From women’s needs to women’s rights in disasters. Environ Hazards 3:133–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Enarson E, Morrow B (1998) The gendered terrain of disaster: through women’s eyes. Praeger, Westport

    Google Scholar 

  • Few R (2003) Flooding, vulnerability and coping strategies: local responses to a global threat. Prog Dev Stud 3(1):43–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Few R, Brown K, Tompkins E (2007) Public participation and climate change adaptation: avoiding the illusion of inclusion. Clim Pol 7:46–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fordham M (1999) The intersection of gender and social class in disaster: balancing resilience and vulnerability. Int J Mass Emerg Disasters 17(1):15–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Fordham M (2003) Gender, disaster and development: the necessity for integration. In: Pelling M (ed) Natural disasters and development in a globalizing world. Routledge, London/New York, pp 57–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins R, Ojeda D (2011) Gender and environment: Critical tradition and new challenges. Environ Plan D Soc Space 29(2):237–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemmati M, Rohr U (2009) Engendering the climate-change negotiations: experiences, challenges, and steps forward. Gend Dev 17(1):19–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hickey S, Mohan G (2005) Participation: from tyranny to transformation? Exploring new approaches to participation in development. Zed Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossain H, Dodge C, Abel F (1992) From crisis to development: coping with disasters in Bangladesh. University Press Limited, Dhaka

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulme M (2008) Geographical work at the boundaries of climate change. Trans Inst Br Geogr 33:5–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huq S, Karim Z, Asaduzzaman M, Mahtab F (2005) Vulnerability and adaptation to climate change for Bangladesh. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2007) Climate change 2007: synthesis report. UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson C (1993) Doing what comes naturally? Women and environment in development. World Dev 21(12):1947–1963

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jewitt S (2000) Unequal knowledges in Jharkand, India: de-romanticizing women’s agroecological expertise. Dev Chang 31:961–985

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leach M (2007) Earth mother myths and other ecofeminist fables: how a strategic notion rose and fell. Dev Chang 38(1):67–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacGregor S (2009) A stranger silence still: the need for feminist social research on climate change. Sociol Rev 57:124–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masika R (2002) Gender, development and climate change. Oxfam, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirza MMQ, Warrick RA, Ericksen NJ (2003) The implications of climate change on floods of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers in Bangladesh. Clim Chang 57(3):287–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell T, Tanner TM, Lussier K (2007) We know what we need: South Asian women speak out on climate change adaptation. ActionAid, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Moser S (2009) Now more than ever: the need for more socially relevant research on vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. Appl Geogr 30:464–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nasreen M (2000) Women’s role during floods in Bangladesh: a gender perspective. Philos Progress 28:169–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson V, Stathers T (2009) Resilience, power, culture, and climate: a case study from semi-arid Tanzania, and new research directions. Gend Dev 17(1):81–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson V, Meadows K, Cannon T, Morton J, Martin A (2002) Uncertain predictions, invisible impacts, and the need to mainstream gender in climate change adaptations. Gend Dev 10(2):51–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neumayer E, Plumper T (2007) The gendered nature of natural disasters: the impact of catastrophic events on the gender gap in life expectancy 1981–2002. Ann Am Assoc Geogr 97(3):551–566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nightingale A (2006) The nature of gender: Work, gender and environment. Environ Plann D Soc Space 24(2):165–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien K, Leichenko R, Kelkar U, Venema H, Aandahl G, Tompkins H, Javed A, Bhadwal S, Barg S, Nygaard L, West J (2004) Mapping vulnerability to multiple stressors: climate change and globalization in India. Glob Environ Chang A 14(4):303–313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Reilly K, Halvorson S, Sultana F, Laurie N (2009) Global perspectives on gender–water geographies. Gender Place Culture 16(4):381–385

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paul B (1997) Flood research in Bangladesh in retrospect and prospect: a review. Geoforum 28(2):121–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rabbani G, Rahman A, Mainuddin K (2009) Women’s vulnerability to water-related hazards: comparing three areas affected by climate change in Bangladesh. Waterlines 28(3):235–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau D, Thomas-Slayter B, Wangari E (1996) Feminist political ecology: global issues and local experiences. Routledge, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmuck H (2000) ’An act of Allah’: religious explanations for floods in Bangladesh as survival strategy. Int J Mass Emerg Disasters 18(1):85–95

    Google Scholar 

  • Seager J (2006) Noticing gender (or not) in disasters. Geoforum 37(1):2–3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seager J (2009) Death by degrees: taking a feminist hard look at climate change targets. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning (Denmark)—women. Gender Res 18(3–4):11–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Seager J, Hartmann B (2005) Mainstreaming gender in environmental assessment and early warning. United Nations, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith B, Burton I, Klein RJT, Wandel J (2000) An anatomy of adaptation to climate change and variability. Clim Chang 45(1):223–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sultana F (2009a) Community and participation in water resources management: gendering and naturing development debates from Bangladesh. Trans Inst Br Geogr 34(3):346–363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sultana F (2009b) Fluid lives: subjectivity, gender and water management in Bangladesh. Gender Place Culture 16(4):427–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sultana F (2010) Living in hazardous waterscapes: gendered vulnerabilities and experiences of floods and disasters. Environ Hazards 9(1):43–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sultana F (2011) Suffering for water, suffering from water: emotional geographies of resource access, control and conflict. Geoforum 42(2):163–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Terry G (2009) No climate justice without gender justice: an overview of the issues. Gend Dev 17(1):5–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas D, Twyman C (2005) Equity and justice in climate change adaptation amongst natural-resource-dependent societies. Glob Environ Chang 15(2):115–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Truelove Y (2011) (Re-)conceptualizing water inequality in Delhi, India through a feminist political ecology framework. Geoforum 42(2):143–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiest R (1998) A comparative perspective on household, gender, and kinship in relation to disaster. In: Enarson E, Morrow B (eds) The gendered terrain of disaster: through women’s eyes. Praeger, Westport, pp 63–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Wisner B (2010) Climate change and cultural diversity. Int Soc Sci J 61:131–140. [PubMed]

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wisner B, Blaikie P, Cannon T, Davis I (2004) At risk: natural hazards, people’s vulnerabilities and disasters, 2nd edn. Routledge, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank the editors for inviting me to submit the chapter. This is an adaptation of Sultana, F. 2014, “Gendering Climate Change: Geographical Insights” The Professional Geographer 66(3): 372–381. Reprinted by permission of The American Association of Geographers, www.aag.org.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, NY, USA

    Farhana Sultana

Authors
  1. Farhana Sultana
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Farhana Sultana .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Christiane Fröhlich

  2. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal

    Giovanna Gioli

  3. Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Hamburg, Germany

    Roger Cremades

  4. International Alert, London, United Kingdom

    Henri Myrttinen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Sultana, F. (2018). Gender and Water in a Changing Climate: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Fröhlich, C., Gioli, G., Cremades, R., Myrttinen, H. (eds) Water Security Across the Gender Divide. Water Security in a New World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64046-4_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation