Gender, Development and the Environment: Female Empowerment and Contributions to Creating Sustainable Societies

• In Event: 325 - Section on Sociology of Development Paper Session. Environment and Development

Abstract

In this paper I examine the connection between female empowerment and sustainable development. Despite the attention that climate change and sustainability attract from academics, activists, and policy-makers, there remains limited empirical and theoretical analysis of the impact of ecofeminist and women and environment ideas for reducing the global ecological footprint and that of individual nations. Using data from the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the World Resources Institute, and YCLEP/CIESIN among others I perform a quantitative, cross-national analysis of the spillover effects that gender equality and female empowerment have on creating sustainable societies. The gender and development perspective argues that in general women’s interests are also in the national and global interest. Findings here reveal that this is equally true with regard to the environment and sustainability emphases of ecofeminist approaches to development as well in that empowering women improves a nation’s environmental performance and access to components of sustainability such as basic sanitation. Empowering women and emphasizing gender equality not only benefits the lives of women and girls but also has effects beyond the household, community, and borders of individual nations to regional and global communities and this is likely beneficial to addressing issues such as climate change, environmental health, and hunger among others. This paper therefore contributes to and extends important research regarding impacts on ecological footprints by more fully incorporating a gender perspective on sustainability and environmental change.

Author

• Stephen J. Scanlan, Ohio University