Gender All the Way Down: Proposing a feminist framework for analyzing gendered climate security risks

Abstract

According to mythical world views from many traditions, there is a World Turtle that rests on a larger turtle, and that larger turtle rests on an even larger turtle, and on and on the turtles go. In other words, earth is held up by turtles, all the way down. Just as the World Turtle story, this study attempts to uncover what role gender may play in supporting or mitigating climate-related crises and conflict by offering a conceptual Gender-Climate-Security Framework for assessing the gendered climate-security risks within particular contexts. Using several theoretical traditions, including feminist political economy, feminist political ecology, and women, peace, and security (international security) theory, the study interrogates existing climate security frameworks with a gender lens. The resulting framework proposed in this study comprises two primary components: (1) gendered climate-related human security risks, and (2) gender intersections with each of four types of national/international security risks, including crime/violence/extremism, anti-state grievances, grievances between societal groups, and interstate tensions. Each of 15 climate security factors (early warning, healthcare, WASH, food security, recent shocks, long-term adaptation, poverty, life expectancy, education, standard of living, unemployment, socioeconomic development, infrastructure, corruption, and state fragility) are analyzed regarding how gender, climate change, and security factors may intersect one another. The study finds that there is ample evidence showing that women’s diminished human security is likely to lead to fewer system-level resources and tools that support climate security and aid in preventing climate-related conflicts. The study also finds an emerging body of research that suggests considering gendered factors in national/international climate security threats would be beneficial for avoiding or resolving climate-related tensions. As such, if gender is given due consideration in climate security contexts, it is likely to provide useful insights that could guide policy and program implementation. This proposed framework does not suggest there is a single best approach to assessing gendered climate security risks, but rather offers a diagnostic approach for engaging in bottom-up climate security assessments that are place-based and context-specific. A necessary next step is for policymakers and practitioners to test and evaluate this approach under various conditions. Ultimately, in seeking to build a framework to understand how gender intersects with climate security concerns, this study finds that, like numerous turtles that form the foundation of a mythical earth, layer upon layer, from the top all the way to the bottom, the impacts of climate change on Human Security and National/International Security cannot be understood without considering gender. In other words, it’s gender all the way down the climate security lifecycle, and humanity would be reckless to ignore it.