OpinionHow the climate crisis is worsening gender inequality, from Indonesia to Nigeria

Name: Why villagers in Fiji are being forced to abandoned their homes
Uploaded: 2023-11-05T18:00:17.000Z
Duration: 3 min 25 s
Description: Why villagers in Fiji are being forced to abandoned their homes

Research has long shown that many coastal areas in the Global South are the most directly affected by climate change

Land erosion, economic decline, and losses in fisheries exacerbate the struggles faced by women and girls in countries where they already face disproportionate inequalities

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Women sell fish in Bali, Indonesia. Photo: Shutterstock

Andi Misbahul Pratiwi

Published: 2:00am, 6 Nov 2023

Across the world, women and men experience the impacts of the climate crisis in different ways. These are shaped by societal roles and responsibilities and result in widening inequalities between men and women.

Sea-level rise, storm surges and high waves in coastal area do not discriminate, but societal structures often do. This makes climate change a highly gender-sensitive issue.

Research has long shown that coastal areas are the most directly affected by climate change. Small islands in Asia, Central and South America and Africa – what many term the “Global South” – are particularly vulnerable to land erosion and economic decline, amid livelihood losses in fisheries.

My doctoral research explores how in countries where women and girls already face disproportionate inequalities relating to ethnicity, class, age and education, the climate crisis is making things worse. In coastal areas, in particular, women and girls are ever more vulnerable.

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Why villagers in Fiji are being forced to abandoned their homes

Livelihoods under threat

In 2017, in collaboration with the Indonesian Feminist Journal, I conducted research off the coast of Demak in Java, Indonesia. I found that women in coastal communities faced multiple problems, from poverty and domestic and gender-based violence to employment challenges.