WOMEN LEADING THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT
By Megan Light, Ellen Salter
March 2022
Women around the world are facing higher risks and greater burdens of climate change. The greatest effects of climate change are felt by those living closely to and relying on natural resources - individuals, often women, who have the least capacity to withhold natural hazards such as droughts, floods, hurricanes and landslides. According to the UN, for instance, women and girls represent 51% of the global population yet 80% of those displaced by climate change are female.
The crisis also adversely affects the poor, and the majority of those living in poverty are women. These vulnerabilities are compounded by the structural gendered inequities of unequal participation in the labour market, and in political and climate-related planning, decision-making, and implementation. Yet whilst it is absolutely crucial to address and remedy these adversities experienced by women, particularly women of colour, the narrative of the vulnerable, helpless victim neglects the importance of women in finding the critical solutions to the climate crisis.
This International Women’s Day, and for the year ahead, the global campaign theme encourages action. With the hashtag #choosetochallenge, the day promotes the notion that the challenged world is an alert world, and with challenge comes change. So, here are 5 women who leading the charge for climate justice:
Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai was an inspiring woman and self-proclaimed ‘child of the soil’. She was the first female head of department at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. She worked tirelessly with women and girls to plant and manage over 6,000 trees to combat soil degradation and desertification. She led the charge for the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.
Find out more here.
Sharon Hanshaw
Sharon Hanshaw was a beautician turned climate activist. Post the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she fought for the livelihoods and restoration of Biloxi (a city Mississippi, United States). The community was ravished by the storm. She founded Coastal Women for Change to provide a voice for community groups and support with grant applications and financial support.
Find out more.
Mitzi Jonelle Tan
Mitzi Jonelle Tan is a climate activist from Manila in the Philippines. She co-founded Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines and Fridays for Future Philippines. She raises the platform for indigenous voices in her community to fight for a green and just society for all.
Find out more here.
Mary Robinson
Mary Robinson served as the seventh President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. In 2010, she established the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to climate change and development policies. The Mary Robinson Foundation centres around thought leadership, education, and advocacy, and commits to safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly. Mary is also President of The Elders, a group set up by Nelson Mandela in 2007 of ‘independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights’, working on seemingly unsurmountable solutions to climate change, along with HIV/AIDS, and poverty. Her book, entitled Climate Justice (2018) advocates for female empowerment and leadership in solving the climate crisis.
Find out more here.
Xiye Bastida
Xiye Bastida is a climate justice activist based in New York City. She is an organiser with Fridays For Future and the co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative, an international youth-led organisation that focuses on highlighting the intersectionality of the climate crisis. She is member of the Mexican Indigenous community, Otomi-Toltec Nation and fights for immigrant visibility in the climate crisis.
Find out more here.
You May Also Be Interested In: 5 Men Leading The Charge For Climate Justice
References:
https://unfccc.int/gender
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/15/global-climate-action-must-be-gender-equal
Oxfam (2006), Group lives up to its name: Coastal Women for Change
https://yacap.org/mitzijonelle/
https://www.mrfcj.org/
https://www.xiyebeara.com/
© 2022 Climate Just Collective