Centre for Public Policy

One of the world’s biggest challenges is gender inequality, the power dynamic wherein the masculine holds power over the feminine to different degrees, and in varying ways. There is no place on Earth where gender equality has been attained. At the current rate of progress, UN Women predicts that it will take another 286 years before it is achieved. Importantly, gender inequality is not a stand-alone issue, but rather seeps into, or sometimes causes, all other political challenges. For this reason, feminist researchers have consistently pushed for gender to be mainstreamed in the social sciences—for a ‘Gendered Lens’ to be applied to our approaches at understanding and remedying political and social ills, even when they don’t seem related to women or gender in an obvious way.

Rates of gender inequality impact global politics and governance across the board. A state’s level of peacefulness or violence can be predicted by, for example, its level of democracy and wealth; yet the best predictor of state violence is its level of violence against women. Corruption decreases when more women serve as representatives. Women’s participation in the paid labour force promotes fiscal sustainability of state welfare services. Our understanding of the impacts of improved gender equality—and women in decision-making roles— has been facilitated by taking gender seriously and by applying lenses to our research that reflect this importance.

At the Centre for Public Policy, one of our main goals is not only to identify political/policy problems but to find ways of addressing them—in other words, to link the knowledge-generating capacity of academia with the change-making capacity of the policy world. My role in this mission is tied to making the gendered aspects of politics better understood, particularly with regard to environmentalism and climate change.  

 

Gender and Climate Policy

My research builds on the work of feminist scholars who have been adeptly applying a ‘Gendered Lens’ by connecting the dots between the gender hierarchy and the status of our natural world for decades. Studies show a gender gap in climate change preferences: in developed countries, women tend to care and know more about climate change, take more sustainable actions in their personal life, and approve of mitigation and adaptation measures at greater rates than men. Further research has demonstrated that this preference gap carries over to policy creation and implementation: improving women’s representation in parliaments contributes to better climate change outcomes and policy.

My research adds to this growing subfield’s empirical arm by measuring the role of gender inequality in explaining environmental and climate change outcomes. For example, women’s representation is associated with greater renewable energy consumption over time in higher-income countries. This may be a result of women representatives’ preferences for environmentalism, or of their dedication to representing women’s interests which have been overlooked and ignored. In other research, I find that corruption impedes the positive impact of women’s representation on environmentalism. This research evidences not only the importance of inclusion and integrity in governance for ensuring a successful and just Green Transition, but the utility of applying a gendered lens to the study of environmental policy.

 

Addressing Policy Challenges with a Gendered Lens

Policymakers are faced with a range of complex challenges when it comes to legislating. The policymaking process around climate crisis is particularly ridden with hurdles and conflicting interests. Yet, ensuring the application of a gendered lens in the climate policymaking process can help to ameliorate this challenge. Not only will it help to improve environmental outcomes, but it can help to better account for the various interests at play and the diverse communities impacted by the climate crisis and mitigation efforts. This is key to a Just and truly democratic transition to Net Zero.

 

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First published: 20 February 2024