# _5)_ _<u>Gender as a key driver in the mix of multidimensional inequalities</u>_

An abundance of case studies exist to date that illustrate the differential impacts of climate change on men and women. A good summary is provided by Chapter 13 Livelihoods and Poverty, the Gender Box, WGII, and additional examples from Chapter 12 Human Health. Impacts range from changes and losses to livelihoods and assets (e.g. taking up wage labor, reducing consumption levels, attracting specific illnesses such as water‐borne diseases due to more interaction with water‐logged environments, gain and loss of land as main asset) and increases in household and caring responsibilities, known as ‘feminization of responsibilities’ (e.g. increasing workloads, longer working hours, taking care of children, the elderly, and the sick) to occupational hazards (e.g. heat stress due to outside agricultural work or inside occupations), emotional and psychological distress (e.g. exhaustion and mental health issues due to overload of responsibilities, increase in domestic fights and gender‐based violence due to stress, tension, loss, grief, and disrupted social networks), and mortality (e.g. social conditioning leading to drowning) (see Olsson et al. 2014a; Vincent et al. 2014a). Table 5 illustrates more specific gendered examples from Australia and India.

<!-- Start of picture text --> more interaction with water‐logged environments, gain and loss of land as main asset) and<br>increases in household and caring responsibilities, known as ‘feminization of responsibilities’<br>(e.g. increasing workloads, longer working hours, taking care of children, the elderly, and the<br>sick) to occupational hazards (e.g. heat stress due to outside agricultural work or inside<br>occupations), emotional and psychological distress (e.g. exhaustion and mental health issues<br>due to overload of responsibilities, increase in domestic fights and gender‐based violence due to<br>stress, tension, loss, grief, and disrupted social networks), and mortality (e.g. social conditioning<br><!-- End of picture text --> Table 5: Examples of gendered climate change experiences (Source: Olsson et al. 2014a) <!-- Start of picture text --> Chapter 13 concludes with very high confidence that climate‐related hazards increase or<br>heighten existing gender inequalities, intertwined with socioeconomic, institutional, cultural,<br>and political drivers that perpetuate differential vulnerabilities. Gendered impacts result from<br>differential access to social and environmental resources that are needed for adaptation as well<br>as social exclusion from labor markets, decision‐making processes and planning (Vincent et al.<br>2014). Earlier studies, focusing predominantly on women’s quasi‐universal vulnerability under<br>climate change, tended to obscure unequal power relations and structural drivers of inequality,<br><!-- End of picture text --> Chapter 13 concludes with very high confidence that climate‐related hazards increase or heighten existing gender inequalities, intertwined with socioeconomic, institutional, cultural, and political drivers that perpetuate differential vulnerabilities. Gendered impacts result from differential access to social and environmental resources that are needed for adaptation as well as social exclusion from labor markets, decision‐making processes and planning (Vincent et al. 2014). Earlier studies, focusing predominantly on women’s quasi‐universal vulnerability under climate change, tended to obscure unequal power relations and structural drivers of inequality, largely to bring women onto the climate change map. More recent work has been trying to reverse this unfortunate one‐dimensional portrayal and instead bring to the fore socially constructed gender differences that explain specific and shifting dimensions of vulnerability.

Revealing yet shocking evidence, for instance, comes from Lagos where poverty, class, political neglect, and gender discrimination interact with sea level rise and flooding (Ajibade et al. 2013).

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