Women’s wisdom and actions are essential to define climate change consequences and design solutions. We must be involved in planning and implementing responses that ameliorate impacts. And the same applies to human rights, self-determination, human trafficking, education, and safe, fair work. But impacts of climate change on women are not receiving enough attention from planners and funders. Too often women are not asked what problems they see and possible solutions, and women are excluded from projects and foundation grants.
Statistics indicate that of all proposals on curbing climate change submitted to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in 2014, only 18 percent addressed gender issues. The GEF, one of World Bank’s largest trust-funded programs, was established in 1991 to address major environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity, pollution, land degradation and desertification. In two decades it has distributed $4.8 billion to over 790 programs in 120 countries. Although women have been left out of the biggest problem humanity has faced, we are doing something to remedy this lack.
Climate change as the root problem of rape and other threats
From rape to disasters, climate change a threat to women tells how climate change can be at the root of problems faced by women. One example is from Guatemala where water scarcity due to weather and increased mining was forcing women to walk further to collect water, resulting in twice as many kidnappings and rapes. The article discusses how important it is for funders to recognize this as a climate change issue and not just as a women’s safety concern.
"The group of young women came to us and said that they were going to campaign for women's and girls' access to water, because that was the main reason behind the rise in rapes and kidnapping. So we provided them a grant of $15,000 that was usually reserved for climate projects," said Lopez, who spoke at this week's Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen, which for the first time had a strong focus on climate change issues this year.
Women Belong at the Center of the Environmental Justice Movement
At Women Deliver, two common phrases are these, Ms magazine’s blog reports. (My bold added for emphasis.)
“WHEN YOU INVEST IN WOMEN, EVERYBODY WINS.”
“women at the center.”
That phrase rings especially true for for climate disruption—women find themselves in the center of this crisis. Because of gender inequalities, climate disruption hits women first and worst.
Poverty makes recovering from extreme weather events and adapting to climate disruption more difficult, and women make up 70 percent of the world’s one billion poorest people. Composing nearly 80 percent of global refugee and displaced populations and predominantly responsible for food production, women are especially vulnerable to extreme weather. Typically in emergencies, 70 to 80 percent of those needing assistance are women and children. When extreme weather hits, women are 14 times more likely to die than men.
Even if women survive extreme weather events, the effects of climate disruption can worsen existing inequalities. For example, changing weather patterns can wipe out crops and decimate a family’s livelihood. In order to feed families, fathers marry off daughters early, as children, taking girls out of school, continuing the poverty cycle, and increasing gender-based discrimination.
Ghana’s women farmers resist the G7 plan to grab Africa’s seeds explains how the corporate model for agricultural seeds is a war on women. Worldwide, ten corporations hold rights to more than 75 percent of the commercial seed market. In Africa, 80 percent of the seeds come from the farmers (as is true in other less developed areas in the world). Restricting farmers to commercial seeds is an attack on their way of life, on their cultural connections, the knowledge developed through generations that is often transferred from mother to daughter. Their seeds are used in rituals and ceremonies and have significance beyond planting for food. Ghana’s civil society groups, rural women networks, unions, faith groups and farmers’ organisations are working to protect the rights to their own seeds and their way of life.
Sharing and saving seed is a crucial part of traditional farming all over Africa, writes Heidi Chow. Maybe that's why governments, backed by multinational seed companies, are imposing oppressive seed laws that attack the continent's main food producers and open the way to industrial agribusiness. But Ghana's women farmers are having none of it. [...]
The ability to save and exchange seeds after each growing season is an age-old practice that ensures that small scale farmers have seeds to sow the following year. [..]
Keeping seeds and sharing seeds is essential for sustainable livelihoods as well as ensuring communities have access to nutritious and culturally relevant food. But this is all under threat by a proposed bill - dubbed the ‘Monsanto Law' - in Ghana.
Its effect would be to bolster the power of multinational seed companies whilst restricting the rights of small farmers to keep and swap their seeds.
When women are part of planning projects, more gets done and changes last longer.
source
...women and girls are more than victims—they’re change makers. What’s good for women is also good for the climate. With access to opportunity, women can provide climate leadership, innovation, and government action. When women are included in the climate planning process, not only do they bring in a unique perspective, but are also more likely to take part in solutions. When diverse perspectives are engaged in climate action, stronger solutions are more likely. In fact, parliaments with a higher proportion of women are more likely to ratify environmental treaties.
Women’s views are needed because men often don’t see what is happening in women’s lives.
10 things to know: gender equality and achieving climate goals discusses findings to prove that gender-sensitive approaches lead to better climate and development outcomes – and how they do it.
Women’s wisdom crucial to beating climate change
Women grow much of the family food in some areas and when climate change affects crops, they are the people with first hand knowledge. But also, due to crop failures and other issues, families are migrating to urban areas, and the women’s roles alter. In their rural homes, these women had important responsibilities in firewood, water, food and other life issues. How does this transfer to an urban life?
Particular attention should be paid to women's involvement in climate change adaptation efforts in the world's burgeoning cities, as migration brings greater numbers of struggling rural families to urban areas….
In some ways, a move to the city can offer new opportunities for women, from a greater choice of jobs to easier access to public transport, healthcare, policing and schools….
But women also face new pressures, including an inability to grow their own food, which can weaken food security…. Women who at home might have had a say in things like wood and water collection and farming may end up participating less in decision-making in cities….
Women demand justice and progress
Global Fund for Women “stands behind movements for women’s human rights all over the world. Our global network of over 2,000 advisors and partners helps us find, fund, and strengthen groups who work with the most marginalized women in the world. We give funding that helps provide for the fundamental things: rent, computers, staffing, travel, training, security, and electricity. We then help them connect to other donors, as well as local or national women’s groups.”
Although they work with more than climate justice issues, often these link back to climate change, such as refugees. Other projects include natural disasters like the earthquake in Nepal (#StandWithNepal) and Women and the Refugee Crisis.
Refugee camps are cramped, and thousands of people are living in extreme poverty, without access to basic needs like electricity and clean water. Violence against women is escalating and becoming the new normal in camps across Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq.
One campaign that covers many needs is #Determined.
Self-determination is a right, not a privilege. The circumstances into which you’re born should never pre-determine your destiny. No matter where you come from or your parents’ income, everyone is entitled to the same human rights.
#Determined shares the inspirational stories of courageous women and girls around the world who are fighting for power over their own lives, a right that many of us take for granted.
It shows us that when activists, local communities, donors, and supporters come together, they’re unstoppable. Global Fund for Women gets money and support to these fearless women-led groups who are demanding and defending equal human rights for all of us.
#Daring women in the Middle East and North African are demanding progress and human rights. For example, in Egypt defending human rights could land you in jail.
And you can help by signing a petition to show solidarity with these women who risk it all to defend their rights.
Before moving into the routine WOW events of this past week, here’s a Lady Parts Justice humor break. “LPJ is a cabal of comics and writers exposing creeps hellbent on destroying access to birth control and abortion. Inclusive. Intersectional. Fun as Fuck.”
Other WOW News
INTERNATIONAL
A Turkish news agency run entirely by women takes a bold stand for gender equality and press freedom in a region that suppresses both.
"Even when we cover ordinary events, we strive to highlight whatever is there in terms of female visibility.” The news agency gives precedence to statements from women during press conferences or seeks to use women or girls as the frame for a story.
And another view of women journalists in Turkey — Outrageous – Taking Censorship to a Whole New Level. A Turkish court stripped journalist Arzu Yildiz of legal rights over her two children and gave her a 20 month prison sentence for publishing a video about the Syria arms delivery, which sparked such outrage from the country’s top leadership that Prime Minister Erdogan has been relentless in covering up the scandal.
Chinese military official criticizes the new Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen as a “single woman politician who was prone to a radical style because she lacked the burden of love, family and children.” He didn’t get away with this and his article was removed from major mainland news sites. “On Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, a user wrote, Does this mean you will agree to the independence of Taiwan as long as she’s married.”
YAY for women who tend to be radical and who won’t put up with sexist nonsense.
Good news! Judge overturns El Salvador homicide conviction of woman for miscarriage. She is free!
various smh cultural news from the us
Mass incarceration is a women’s issue too. One in four women and nearly half of all Black women have a family member in prison.
Gina Clayton, a recent Harvard Law School graduate in 2010, was working as a housing attorney in Harlem. She met with clients every day, women who were supporting whole communities and, at the same time, facing evictions as a result of criminal matters. Clayton recalled one client, a model tenant who faced losing her home of 20 years. Her client’s grandson, who didn’t live with her, was arrested blocks from her apartment and gave her client’s address to his arresting officer. [...]
When a family member is locked up, women often are left behind to pick up the pieces of tragedy, scraping together money not only for their households, but for attorney bills, court payments, prison phone calls, visitation fees and re-entry costs. Research shows more than a third of women surveyed have been pushed into debt from costs associated with incarceration.
In 2014, Clayton founded Essie Justice Group (Essie). Her vision is to ignite a movement to end mass incarceration by empowering and engaging a ready, but overlooked, force for change—women with loved ones behind bars.
Representation Matters! What’s Wrong With White Beauty Standards? Let These Women of Color Lay It Out For You
Australian man experiences repeated street harassment in Thailand, and makes the connection that this is what it's like for women.
“The first few times it makes a funny story, but then you just get sick of it. It makes you feel like you’re just getting watched all the time; like you’re a piece of meat,” he says seriously.
Human trafficking survivor runs triathalon to draw attention to plight of trafficking victims.
The 49-year-old mother-of-two [Normal Bastidas] is a celebrated ultra-marathoner, known to have trekked 150 miles across the scorched deserts of Namibia or run double-marathons over an icy tundra in Antarctica.
"I try to be as kind to myself as possible," says Bastidas, of what she thinks about on these unyielding journeys. "Because the world hasn't always been that kind.” [...]
...
for Bastidas, running is mainly a release, the opportunity to clear her mind of past judgments and negative emotions.
"It will drain me if I evoke those feelings all the time," says Bastidas. "Being able to master the emotions comes from the knowledge of Taoism.”
The National Institute of Justice released a study finding that more than 4 out of 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women and men have experienced violence, reports ICTMN. (More than 4 of 5 sounds a lot like nearly 100% to me.)
…specifically sexual violence, physical violence by intimate partners, stalking, and psychological aggression by intimate partners—in their lifetimes, according to estimates in a new report from the National Institute of Justice, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department.
More than half (56.1 percent) of AIAN women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes and almost all of them (96 percent) have experienced sexual violence perpetrated by someone not of their own race. Among AIAN men, 1 in 4 has experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes. Again, almost all (89 percent) have experienced sexual violence committed by a person not of their race.
And the rate might be even higher because of how the questioning was conducted and the types of violence included.
The survey was conducted by telephone in English and Spanish. People who did not have telephones, or who were not allowed to answer the telephone or respond to the survey questions, could not participate, nor could people who spoke only an indigenous language. No information was collected regarding online enticement or human trafficking, and other forms of violence, such as mugging, robbery or car-jacking, were not included.
Ken Starr - yes, THAT Ken Starr - reportedly fired as President of Baylor University for mishandling sexual assault complaints. Well, on second thought, that’s a bit harsh, so they just demoted him.
Man forces his 14-year old daughter to marry her 24-year old rapist — horrifying story
So here’s a terrible, awful story from the great state of Idaho.
Trigger warnings for gyaaah, and for ick, and for grrrr, as this story involves heartbreaking, disgusting, and rage-inducing incidents of rape, victim-blaming, patriarchy run amok, etc. The local news station’s headline sums up all of that: “Dad admits he took pregnant 14-year-old daughter to marry her 24-year-old rapist.”
Women’s voices are important in stories for children, See Inside the New Book Teaching Girls They Can Change the World.
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls features 100 stories of inspiring women throughout history, from Maria Sibylla Merian, a 17th-century naturalist and scientific illustrator, to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, to Yusra Mardini, a Syrian refugee training in Berlin for the 2016 Olympics.
“We’ve often wished we had grown up surrounded by more female role models,” Favilli wrote. [...]
The page-long profiles are accompanied by illustrated portraits, each commissioned by a different female artist from around the world. The pair attempted to feature women from diverse backgrounds and having a variety of careers.
“One of our favorites is Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh, who ruled Egypt long before Cleopatra and whose memory was destroyed after her death out of fear that her success could encourage other women to seek power,” Favilli explained. “Her story is particularly symbolic, because women’s accomplishments tend to be forgotten—or simply diminished—much more easily than men’s.”
Black women became our most educated demographic group in 2015 — how wonderful — and they earn $20,000 less per year than white men — how awfully typical.
According to The National Center for Education Statistics, black women have recently emerged as the most educated population of people by race and gender in the United States. That makes them a powerful force in the political and business world.
and no wow week is complete without more attacks on reproductive rights
In Indiana, a dangerous precedent may be set for prosecuting pregnant women who are given no good choices. Purvi Patel purchased drugs to induce abortion (from Hong Kong) and delivered a premature 1.5 pound baby in 2013. She put his body in the trash behind her family’s restaurant. She was convicted of feticide and neglect of a dependent resulting in death in 2015. The state argued that the baby was born alive, at least 25 weeks into gestation, and had taken at least one breath before dying because they found the baby’s DNA and some of his blood on the material he was wrapped inside. More on this situation in which : Indiana court to hear woman’s appeal of feticide. The appeal is based on the defense’s position that Patel believed the baby was dead when she gave birth.
Modesto CA Planned Parenthood clinic closes after suspected arson fire. Patients will be redirected to the next closest PP center, a half hour drive away. (Yay California — only a half hour drive instead of all day.)
Not sure where to categorize this. Victims in Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting sue health group, say attack was preventable.
The lawsuit claims the Colorado Springs facility should have had more adequate security measures on site, including armed guards and fencing during the Nov. 27 gun rampage. This comes wth knowledge of the long history of hostile threats and hateful attacks against Planned Parenthood.
The efforts reproductive health clinics must take to protect staff and clients adds significantly to their workload and expenses. Many clinics have guards and escorts for people from the time they park near the clinic until they leave. Now, technology is expanding the ability of anti-choice groups to harass clients. Location services on your smart phone are used when you enter a zone near the clinic that is geo-fenced.
[John Flynn, CEO of Copley Advertising] sends advertisements for his clients to women’s smartphones while they are sitting in Planned Parenthood clinics, using a technology known as “mobile geo-fencing.” He also planned to ping women at methadone clinics and other abortion facilities. His program for Bethany covered five cities: Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; St. Louis, Missouri; and New York City. [...]
Flynn’s targeting of women seeking abortion presents a serious threat to the privacy and safety of women exercising their right to choose, as well as to abortion providers and their staff, a Rewire investigation has found. But due to weak and patchwork laws governing privacy and data collection in the United States, the conduct appears to be perfectly legal.
When states regulate abortions so strictly clinics are not accessible, women return to DIY abortions, although we now have drugs like misoprostol, available in Mexico without a prescription. Over 100,000 women in Texas (perhaps as many as 240,000) have crossed the border to buy the drug and returned home to self-induce abortion. Only 20 abortion clinics remain open in Texas to serve 5.4 million women.
Here is good news for women who have been sexually assaulted but why should it be necessary to specify these rights? Senate passed a bill giving rights to sexual assault survivors
Central to the bill … is the right for victims' to have their rape kits preserved for free. The law would also prevent rape kits from being destroyed until the statute of limitations ends in the state where the crime occurred. States would be required to inform victims 60 days in advance of the kit's expiration date.
What could be a regular WOW section — @everydaysexism
She Doesn’t Owe You Shit/Body for Wife is about men feeling entitled to dominate women and control our bodies because they
- are our husbands;
- bought us dinner
- were near where we walked
- told us to smile
- said we have nice hair
- and other bullshit reasons.
For more of these weak justifications and daily ugh women experience solely because we are visible, check out the Twitter site @EverydaySexism and the associated book Girl Up by Laura Bates.
“Hilarious, jaunty and bold, GIRL UP exposes the truth about the pressures surrounding body image, the false representations in media, the complexities of a sex and relationships, the trials of social media and all the other lies they told us.”
Whew — are you exhausted yet? This is just one week — imagine life after life of this! Here’s good news about supporting third wave feminists worldwide.
FRIDA works toward a future where, among other things, young women and girls live their lives free from violence and poverty, can obtain an education and control decisions about their bodies. FRIDA believes that not only is supporting young women-led initiatives important in itself but that no lasting solutions to the world’s major challenges can be effective if young women are left out.
women’s voices are crucial on the frontlines of climate change, eco-justice, social welfare, conservation, and every other aspect of life.
Articles published on Daily Kos that related to WOW are regularly reblogged through the WOW Activity Stream. You can have these added to your Stream by clicking Follow on the WOW profile page.
Thanks to the voices of Tara, 2thanks, ramara, officebss, cinnamon68, and
elenacarlena for all the behind-the-scenes work collecting this week’s events.