Description
Book SynopsisCities across the globe are growing fast. Today many are environmental nightmares with polluted air, excessive energy consumption and an absence of nature. But big cities don’t have to mean a dystopian future. They can be turned around to be powerhouses of well-being and environmental stability – if we empower women. This book is a unique collaboration between C40 and Friends of the Earth showcasing pioneering voices in the environmental and feminist movements. This book reveals just how women’s empowerment is critical to environmental sustainability. This book is a rallying call – for the planet, for women, for everyone.
Trade Review…this book is relevant to a wide audience (arguably everyone): to inform our understanding of discrimination against women, and to provide inspiring insight and encouragement into opportunities for achieving not only gender equality but environmental sustainability too. * Environment and Urbanization *
Hope is a potent catalyst. And while our failure to adequately appreciate and guard against ecological destruction fills me with frustration, my hope is not meek or weak. It is urgent and raging. It’s a hope that believes a better world – away from cyclical war, the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor – is possible. * Caroline Lucas MP *
This book is a wake-up call for the environmental movement. It shows conclusively that women’s empowerment is essential to achieving environmental sustainability. This has been a blind-spot for us for far too long. Under my leadership, I am determined that Friends of the Earth will take this issue seriously, build campaigning alliances with women's groups and mainstream gender equality throughout our work. * Craig Bennett, CEO of Friends of the Earth *
You can’t save the planet without equality … We need a new economics informed by the larger picture, an economy that puts women and the Earth at the centre. * Vandana Shiva *
Table of ContentsJenny Hawley - Introduction 1. Diane Elson, University of Essex - Women's empowerment and environmental sustainability in the context of international UN agreements 2. Wanjira Maathai, Green Belt Movement, Kenya - Women as drivers of forest restoration to combat climate change 3. Lyla Mehta and Melissa Leach, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex - Why do gender equality and sustainability go hand in hand? 4. Caroline Lucas, UK Green Party MP - Is there a speci?c role for women in helping to achieve environmental sustainability through politics? 5. Susan Buckingham, Feminist geographer, Brunel University - The institutionalisation and masculinisation of environmental knowledge 6. Yvonne Orengo, Andrew Lees Trust - Media empowering women in southern Madagascar 7. Julie A. Nelson, Economist, University of Massachusetts Boston - Empowering a balanced and useful economics of sustainability: the role of gender 8. Anna Fitzpatrick, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London - The role of fashion in bringing about social and ecological change 9. Celia Alldridge, Activist with the World March of Women - How the defence of the commons and territories has become a core part of feminist, anti-capitalist struggles 10. Vandana Shiva, Philosopher, activist and co-author of Ecofeminism - Hand in hand: women's empowerment and sustainability 11. Quinn Bernier, Chiara Kovarik, Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Agnes Quisumbing, International Food Policy Research Institute - Women's empowerment in sustainable agriculture 12. Isabel Bottoms and Amena Sharaf, Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights - The impacts of environmental mismanagement on Egypt's poor 13. Nathalie Holvoet and Liesbeth Inberg, University of Antwerp - How gender-sensitive are National Adaptation Programmes of Action? Selected ?ndings from a desk review of thirty-one sub-Saharan African countries 14. Shukri Haji Ismail Bandare and Fatima Jibrell, NGO leaders - Women, con?ict and the environment in Somali society 15. Esther Mwangi, Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) - Gender, participation and community forestry: lessons from beneath the canopy 16. Barbara Stocking, Former CEO of Oxfam GB - Putting gender equality at the heart of Oxfam's work 17. Nidhi Tandon, Networked Intelligence for Development, Canada - From individual to communal rights: empowering women for sustainable use of natural resources 18. Maria Mies, Sociologist, activist and co-author of Ecofeminism - Mother Earth 19. Sarah Fisher, Population and Sustainability Network - Sexual and reproductive health and rights: a win-win for women and sustainability 20. Kate Metcalf and colleagues, UK Women's Environmental Network - The power of grassroots action for women's empowerment and the environment 21. Marylyn Haines Evans, National Federation of Women's Institutes - One hundred years of collective action for environmental change 22. Juliet Davenport, CEO of Good Energy - The impact of gender balance in the renewable energy sector 23. Emma Howard Boyd, 30% Club for women in business leadership - More women in business for a sustainable economy 24. Fiona Reynolds, Former director general of the National Trust - Sustainability is about people 25. Cathy Newman, Journalist and TV presenter for Channel 4 News, UK - Sexism and gender equality in British politics 26. Sarah Richardson, Historian, University of Warwick - Mistresses of their own destiny: a history of women's empowerment in nineteenth-century British politics
