Anna Maria Tarantola: Women nurturing sustainable development
Remarks by Ms Anna Maria Tarantola, Deputy Director General of the Bank of Italy, at the
58th World Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (Femmes Chefs d'Entreprises Mondiales -
FCEM) World Congress, Florence, 22 October 2010.
* * *
I would like to thank the President of AIDDA, Laura Frati Gucci, for inviting me to the
58th FCEM World Congress in this conference entitled "How Women Face the New
Economy and Ecology". The goal of the conference, to assess women's contribution in
balancing economic growth and natural resource conservation, is both topical and
challenging. This is not the first time I find myself considering human-ecosystem interaction:
natural resources are a fundamental input for production and consumption; the environment
is the receptacle for the waste generated by these processes.1 The fundamental question we
must address today is how to increase and spread wealth and wellbeing while respecting
and protecting the environment.
The role of women is central. Throughout history, women and nature have been closely
linked: in Ayurvedic philosophy, prakriti - nature - is symbolized by a woman; similarly, the
idea of "mother earth" is common to many Indo-European cultures. Perhaps it is no accident
that so many of those who have contributed to raising our environmental consciousness
have been - and are - women. Let me mention four of these outstanding women.
The biologist Rachel Carlson was the first to study the harmful effects of DDT in the early
nineteen-sixties. She can be considered the founder of the modern environmental
movement. She was a scientist who stood behind her findings despite fierce attacks from the
chemical industry lobby.2
Limits to Growth3
The environmental scientist Donella Meadows co-authored the book
which laid the foundations for an analysis of the Earth's limited capacity to support economic
and demographic growth. This report was criticized - in particular by economists4 - but
without doubt it had a profound impact on the analytical method used to study environmental
problems. Meadows used computer technology to apply the theory of complex systems to
the economic analysis of the reciprocal effects of growth and the environment; this is now the
standard method to analyse the economic effects of climate change (Integrated Assessment
Modelling).
The Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, an activist and founder of the
environmental movement Green Belt, contributed importantly to the reforestation of vast
areas of Kenya.5 Reforestation not only plays a primary role in combating desertification,
ensuring that soil retains its nutrients and water resources, but it is also an essential tool for
reducing greenhouse gases.6
Maathai demonstrated that managing common resources, such as the environment, does not
necessarily have to lead to over-exploitation, to the "Tragedy of the Commons" as
prophesied by Garrett Hardin. The economist Elinor Ostrom found evidence to support this
outcome in her research on institutional economics. Ostrom was awarded the 2009 Nobel
Prize in Economic Sciences, the first woman ever to win in this category, for her work on
economic governance.
1. Women and the environment in developing countries
In industrialized countries, women have made important contributions in raising our
environmental consciousness. In developing countries, however, where rural communities
are still prevalent, women remain in a condition of profound dependency on their surrounding
environment; women are often responsible for activities essential for family subsistence:
collecting water and firewood and working in the fields.7
For this reason, environmental degradation, and the effects of climate change on the
availability of water resources and crop yields, particularly hurt women. Migration owing to
climate change,8 which primarily affects men, further increases the burden of toil for women.
Moreover, women and children account for the majority of victims in environmental
catastrophes,9 the frequency of which could increase in the future because of global
warming.
It is emblematic that the Millennium Goals place side-by-side the objectives of gender
equality and a development model for the sustainable use of natural resources.
Women are therefore the ideal interlocutors for the adoption and dissemination of
sustainable practices and it is precisely because of their sensibility that Agenda 21 for the
promotion of sustainable development recommends increasing "[...] the proportion of women
decision makers, planners, technical advisers, managers and extension workers in
environment and development fields".
A prerequisite for increasing female participation is improving conditions overall for women. A
World Bank study shows that in countries where women are better educated, there is greater
success adapting to the negative effects of climate change.10 Indicators from the Global
Gender Gap, referring in particular to economic participation and opportunity, on the one
hand, and political empowerment on the other, show depressingly low figures for women in
Sub-Sahara Africa, the Middle East, and North African countries (below 0.5 with reference to
economic participation, 0.2 with reference to political empowerment) and reveal an enormous
disparity with respect to men.11
the United Nations' Program for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UNREDD) -
which aims to make it more economic to conserve and manage forest resources correctly than to deplete
them.
7
A review can be found in the volume published by UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program), 2004,
Women and the Environment.
8
Tarantola A.M. (2009), Economia solidale e sviluppo sostenibile nell'era della post globalizzazione, remarks
addressed to the Fondazione Sorella Natura, Rome, 26 June.
9
In the recent tragic flooding in Pakistan, 85 per cent of the victims were women and children. Mandelbaum J.,
The female victims of Pakistan's flood, Salon, 20 August 2010
(www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/08/20/pakistan_floods_women_victims_open2010).
10
World Bank (2010), Adaptation to climate extremes in developing countries: the role of education.
11
World Economic Forum (2010), The Global Gender Gap Report 2010.
BIS Review 164/2010
2. The industrial world: a green economy led by women?
In industrialized countries, the availability of high quality forms of energy has greatly reduced
the amount of time and effort that women must dedicate to housework. Women here no
longer are required to interact directly, and on a daily basis, with the environment to meet
family needs. Nonetheless, there is substantial evidence that women are more sensitive to
environmental matters.
According to OECD research, the most environmentally-aware consumers are women. They
are more likely than men to recycle domestic waste, buy organic food and green products,
and place greater value on fuel-efficient means of transport.12
These results are confirmed by other studies. A survey conducted by Eurobarometro found
that in 2007 the share of women who said they had done something to improve the
environment was six percentage points higher than for men; the International Social Survey
Programme's 1993 study of attitudes to the environment found, in the sample of countries
surveyed, a large gap between women and men in terms of willingness to pay more for
ecofriendly consumer goods, particularly in Italy, Australia and Norway.13 Recent behavioural
studies give further support to these results.14
Can this greater willingness to consider the effects of one's actions on the environment be
integrated in the transformation process that is "greening" our economies? In brief, does the
green economy represent an opportunity to capitalize on the strong bond between women
and nature?
The answer is yes - but only if the necessary policies are implemented to ensure that this
opportunity is realizable and we can reap the dual dividends of more sustainable, less
discriminatory, economic growth. For this to happen, actions must be taken to increase
women's presence in the work force in general and in the green economy in particular.
The Lisbon agenda indicated the affirmative action that should be taken to prevent
discrimination against women in their professional development. Among these, those making
it easier for women to combine career and family are particularly important. For example, a
study of the development of the photovoltaic sector in Southern Italy underlines the fact that
despite very high female employment potential (among recent architecture graduates,
women outnumber men), the realization of this potential could be blocked by the lack of
preschool facilities for young children.15
Other measures relate specifically to the possibilities offered by the new green sectors with
the greatest growth potential (renewable energy, construction techniques, and agricultural
biomass).
In these sectors, women represent a very small part of the total work force and they rarely
hold the top positions.16 This is due primarily to cultural factors, which have perpetuated a
high level of segregation in these industries. Even in traditional energy sectors, female
participation is extremely low - 14 per cent according to the latest survey of firms.
In the future, the fact that only a small number of women pursue advanced degrees in the
sciences could penalise their access to the green economy. In Italy, only 17 per cent of
women under the age of 44 have taken a scientific degree course at university (compared
with 39 per cent of men); almost twice as many study the humanities. It is essential to launch
a comprehensive information campaign to guide women's choices towards the subjects that
have the greatest employment potential, breaking the vicious cycle of segregation in the
traditional energy sectors.
Women must have the opportunity to play a leading role in developing the green economy. It
would be ironic indeed if the growth achieved with the development of the green economy
actually increased the employment gap between men and women.
3. Conclusion
Women have a unique and strong bond with nature. This can and must be used as a
stepping stone to design policies for sustainable development. We must aim to reconcile
economic welfare, the conservation of natural resources, and environmental quality. We
cannot afford to lose this opportunity to paint the green economy pink.
To achieve these goals, however, women must be enabled to provide their contribution. The
weight of women in politics, in institutions and throughout the business world must be
increased, including at the top levels. For this to happen, a joint effort is required by all
stakeholders - politicians, firms, trade unions, civil and cultural leaders, the media - and
women themselves. A more efficient use of female resources in the labour market and a
higher presence of female entrepreneurs can help us to pursue a more sustainable and more
equitable economy, more attentive to the needs of the environment and of human beings
themselves.
In less developed countries, policies aimed to ensure women greater freedom of action (such
as access to education and the right to vote)17 can help contrast the adverse impact of
climate change, for example through mitigating measures (such as reforestation) and
enabling ecosystems to be more resilient to higher temperatures (for instance, through the
management of land and water resources to prevent desertification).
In industrialized countries, women's greater eco-awareness places them in an ideal position
to actively participate in setting policies that can attenuate the utilization of natural resources
and limit the harmful effects of consumption and production on the environment. The
presence of a greater number of women entrepreneurs in innovative sectors, such as the
green economy, is also key to achieve these goals.
Even simple actions can help to reduce our impact on the ecosystem: conservation of
resources (by water and energy saving) and pollution control (for example, more ecofriendly
means of transport and producing less household waste). The literal meaning of economics
is "household management" and women have traditionally been the frugal, pragmatic,
responsible and farsighted managers of home and family. The same can be true for the
environment - home to us all.
Almost twenty years ago, the Rio Declaration proclaimed that "Women have a vital role in
environmental management and development. Their full participation is therefore essential to
achieve sustainable development". Now is the time to translate this declaration into action to
ensure a better, fairer and more sustainable future, for all of us and for generations to come.