GENDER & SUSTAINABILITY

A Special Issue on Women and the Natural World

In september 2010 the magazin Ecopsychology puplished an edition titeled A Special Issue on Women and the Natural World. Nine articles from a variety of disciplines and perspectives discuss the interface of women’s mental health and empowerment and environmental issues. The topics range from ecofeminist theory and practice to the therapeutic potential of Nature.
In an interview, Susan Griffin discusses the history of her ground-breaking insights expressed in her early work in eco-feminism, particularly her book, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her, which was published in 1978. She also discusses her reaction to the tragic oil spill in the Gulf and her latest ideas and writing about housewifery.
Last but not least the magazin introduces two book reviews: Nature Ethics by Marti Kheel and I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth by Brenda Peterson.
Unfortunately the magazin isn't free reachable in the internet, but you can find  titles and abstracts of all atricles here. There is also the possibility to download all articles with costs.

New online portal for gender equality and community development

With immedeate effect you can find a new online community for the purpose of sharing knowledge on women's empowerment, gender equality, urbanization and community development. On „Women and Human Settlements: A Global Exchange Space“ you are able to pose questions, promote events, relate personal experiences and garner global support for local issues. Blogs and discussion boards permit networking and collaborations among community members. The unique space will bridge the digital divide by supporting women's NGOs and grassroots women's organizations to make connections to a broad range of actors. It will contain unique resources on the work of grassroots women and their organizations in community development around the world.
„Women and Human Settlements“ is a project of The Huairou Commission, in partnership with UN-HABITAT.

Gender relations and sustainable consumption

The Working Paper Moving beyond gender differences in research on sustainable consumption was published in January 2010. This paper aims to include not only gender differences but also gender relations and gender scripts in an analyse of consumer behaviour. Introducing the perspectives of gender relations and gender scripts the writers elaborate on moving beyond an approach of analyzing gender as merely individual differences. Operationalizing these concepts in their empirical analysis they take into account gender relations, the gendered division of labour and gender scripts leading to a gendered perception of technology. Gender relations and gender scripts are particularly important for the analysis of gender issues in sustainable consumption, because in some cases, being
male or female only has explanatory value for consumption patterns when combined
with other socio-demographic variables. Among those are migration background,
parenthood, single parenthood, or marital status.
So, the sample of their survey wasn’t divided into male and female person, but in men and women over and under 45 years, with and without children and in employed and unemployed persons. They questioned 151 people, who were actually in the process of making a purchase decision for a washing machine. One result is that 78% of women with and 71% without children chose an environmentally sound washing machine. 79% of unemployed women but 73% of women with paid labour chose the same.
Therefore, the writers divided their sample not in women and men, but in persons with a typical masculine way of life (men, women without responsibilities for children and women with paid employment) and in persons with a typical feminine way of life (mothers and women without paid employment). First group has a price-oriented technological mindset while the second has a brand-oriented ecological mindset.

The servey is part of the project Social, Environmental and Economical Dimensions of Sustainable Energy Consumption in Residential Buildings. This project wants to make a substantial contribution to research into consumer behaviour in connection with energy consumption in residential buildings. One objective of this project is to identify obstacles that stand in the way of a broader use of renewable sources of energy and the sustainable use of energy. Sub-projects are investigating the role that gender relations play in such decisions.

Gender aspects of sustainable consumption strategies and instruments

Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) presents in a new report the arguments for and examples of how to integrate gender aspects into sustainable consumption strategies and instruments. According to the editors, gender equality as a fundamental dimension of sustainability has not yet been fully integrated into the European and other international policy frameworks for sustainable consumption. The report Gender aspects of sustainable consumption strategies and instruments specifies differences in consumption patterns of women and men, focussing feeding/nutrition and housing/ energy use.
The report is part of an interdisciplinary project called EUPOPP – Policies to Promote Sustainable Consumption Patterns, which is arranged by seven European research institutions from 2008 to 2011.

Feminist annotations to the financial crisis

The international financial crisis is symptomatic for a non-sustainable system which aims at permanent growth and ignores the connections between production and reproduction. Not a responsible, sustainable and caring economy oriented at the well-being of people, but ever larger profits are at the center of the capitalist systems that uses nature's biodiversity and human care work solely as "resources". Solutions proposed so far tend to favour technological solutions that do not question the system itself - in analogy to the climate crisis. To further a fundamental rethinking process from a feminist perspective, genanet publishes the series "Feminist annotations to the financial crisis". So far it is only available in German. For a collection of articles on gender and the financial crisis in English language, see also the WIDE website.

3rd Review of the German Sustainability Strategy

The German Sustainability Strategy (NHS) has being reviewed again. This resulted in the 3rd progress report that has been passed by the Federal Government in October 2008. Main issues are climate and energy effiency, sustainable resource management and demographic change. Once again failing to focus gender as a cross-cutting issue, the report mentions gender only in regard to education and labor market partizipation, thereby mirroring the limited perspectives of current public discussions on gender equality

The European Sustainability Strategy

Progress Report on the European Sustainability Strategy 2007
On 22 October 2007 the European Commission has launched the first progress report since the renewed EU-SDS was adopted by the European Council in 2006. The report and further information about sustainable development in Europe are available on the EU-SDS website.

Review of the first European Sustainability Strategy
Pia Paust-Lassen developed an intervention paper in the framework of the European Strategic Network "Sustainability Strategy", which reviewed the strategy from a gender perspective. The paper was discussed in an workshop in Brussels end of April 2006.
genanet reworked its "Cornerstones for a Gender Just Sustainability Strategy" and adopted it to the European situation. The paper was discussed and agreed in the WECF network and afterwards submitted to the European Commission and members of the European Parliament.

European Sustainability Strategy 2001-2006
In April 2005 an "Open-Space"-Conference was organised by the European Economic and Social Council in Brussels. Two representatives from
genanet and WECF took part in the conference and offered two workshops regarding the integration of gender perspectives in the EU-SDS. Draft results of the workshop "Mainstreaming Gender into the European Sustainability Strategy" are available for download.

Gender equality as a prerequisite for sustaibable development

This study by Swedish scientist Gerd Johnsson-Latham has been presented at the 15Pth CSD in May 2007 to link both with the CSD’s overall theme of climate change and with its cross-sectoral issues of gender equality and sustainable consumption and production. It identifies gender-specific differences in terms of male and female consumption patterns, lifestyles, and access to resources, and explains how these differences are crucially important for achieving sustainable development.