'No Climate Justice Without Gender Justice'-an interview with Felicia Davis

by: Paul Rosenberg

Sun Dec 20, 2009 at 16:30

Open Left: The issue of climate justice is not one that tends to receive a lot of attention in the American media, but it's clearly gained a good deal of prominence in the past week.  How would you define climate justice from a gender-conscious perspective to someone who may not have heard alot about it?

Felicia Davis: As an African American woman I live my life at the intersection of streets named Race, Class, and Gender.  I have found two important things over time 1) My struggles based upon gender are far more challenging and 2) advancement for women elevates everyone.  For almost a decade I worked on climate change from a justice frame that excluded a specific focus on gender but even in the US where women enjoy tremendous opportunties we are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.  In Katrina for example more women lost their lives and those that survived had a more difficult time recovering.  Women possess less income than men are more likely to be poor and are the care givers for children and elderly.  In the absence of a gendered approach to climate policies those policies may be less helpful to women and in some instances even harmful or wasteful.  Women tend to work and think in a more holistic manner of necessity.  We must work, manage households and do what we can to hold our communities together.  Our perspective is essential to the development of solutions that will work.

OL: What do you think is least well understood about the role of gender justice in the struggle for climate justice?  

FD: The distinction between "woman" and "gender" is not well understood.  At the end of the day justice is about fair distribution of power and resources.  Gender justice demands the full participation of women as equals in society and sadly, it is a fact that roles are gendered with different expectations for men and for women when problems are solved for women the entire community benefits.  If it is women that gather wood, tend gardens, cook meals, fetch water, care for the elderly and infermed, and rear children (often on their own) then it is imperative that their needs and perspectives are factored in to climate policies intended to reduce emissions (mitigation), prepare for and respond to disasters (adaptation), change patterns of consumption through education and new technologies (transfer), etc. gender must be infused throughout the process to maximize efforts.

FD:The toolkit provides an introduction to gender targeting leaders for the successful inclusion of gender in policy making.

OL: In introducing you, Natasha wrote, 'Their goal is to get "at least one, strong reference to women and gender issues included in the Copenhagen agreement."'  

FD:Women want a global statement that covers the entire document in the Shared Vision specifically:

The full integration of gender perspectives is essential to effective action on all aspects of climate change, including adaptation, mitigation, technology sharing, financing, and capacity building. The advancement of women, their leadership and meaningful participation, and their engagement as equal stakeholders in all climate related processes and implementation must be guaranteed.

Recalling the international commitments to gender equality and participation, the full integration of gender perspectives is essential to effective action on all aspects of climate change, including  adaptation, mitigation, technology sharing, financing, and capacity building. The advancement of women, their leadership and meaningful participation, and their engagement as equal stakeholders in all climate related processes and implementation must be guaranteed.

OL: I'd like to ask you what that might be, but instead of telling me all at once, I'd like you each to answer that in terms of your own experience. Start with your earliest awarene ss that you can remember about climate change, and how it affected you, or how you approached it differently because you are a woman, and what was most important about it.  (One or two sentences is enough, unless you feel the need for greater length.) Then explain how your awareness and sense of priorities changed from then to now.  If there were two or three major shifts in perspective, please explain each of them, or if it was more of gradual unfolding tell me about that.  Conclude by saying what you want that reference to say RIGHT NOW.  If you're torn between two or more alternatives, please just share them all.

FD: I grew up in a time when funding for girls in sports was limited and the way to participate in school games was by cheering for boys.  In class boys were called on twice as often as girls especially in more technical classes like calculus or physics, and while many teachers were women the principal was always a man.  African Americans were also excluded from most high level positions.  In my youth I struggled for civil rights but in time I realized that churches and the civil rights movement itself was male dominated in spite of the enormous contributions of women.  Fairness demands that all people have an equal opportunity to develop and contribute to society and all contributions are valuable whether in the marketplace or in the home.  In my lifetime the traditional work of women has been grossly undervalued contributing to the impoverishment and often the oppression of women.

I volunteered after Katrina and I saw first hand how women's security and very survival was challenged and how difficult it has been for them to rebuild.  The "poster child" for Katrina is an elderly Black woman draped in an American flag for warmth and it took our nation a week to respond.  A gendered approach to disaster would take into consideration the fact that 70% of the children in New Orleans were in single female headed households and there would have been strategies in place for the identification and reunification of families.  Instead, we had to create websites to find and connect women and their children.  I was already working on Climate Justice from an equity perspective but this incident drove home the need for a gendered approach to policy.

OL: What kind of organization(s) do you work with, and how do they approach the environment generally and/or climate change in particular in a gender-conscious way?  (It's fine to cut & paste from organizational literature for this question--and the sub-questions that follow.)

FD: I work with organizations that advance education, universal access to technology, and inclusion of all voices in civil society discourse particularly for Black women and people of color.  In the business sector I am a partner in Women Flying High, LLC working to increase contract opportunities for women in Atlanta.  Nationally, I work with the Black Women's Roundtable-The Black Women's Roundtable (BWR) is an intergenerational civic engagement network of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. At the forefront of championing just and equitable public policy on behalf of Black women, BWR promotes their health and wellness, economic security, education and global empowerment as key elements for success.  In the environmental arena I am a founding member of the Environmental Justice & Climate Change Initiative and the US Focal Point for GenderCC-Women for Climate Justice.

Here are the specific policy recommendations that BWR made to the Obama Adminstration in a meeting with Valerie Jarrett.  I was honored to present this section:

International policies that advance global empowerment and address our shared stewardship of the earth's resources. BWR applauds the Obama Administration for its bold leadership to restore America as a global citizen and partner for peace and real security.  Although BWR has more extensive foreign policy interests than shared in this document, we wish to highlight two, key immediate concerns.

Restore funding for the National Council of Negro Women International Development Center.  The National Council of Negro Women has worked to improve the social and economic status of women internationally, particularly rural areas of Africa, since 1975 through its International Development Center (IDC).  IDC considers it essential that women-focused projects - designed in a framework sensitive to and respective of local culture - are a part of all development assistance efforts.

BWR is also concerned about the impact of U.S. climate policy upon women globally - especially impacts in developing regions such as Africa and the Caribbean where women are primary food producers whose livelihoods are threatened by changing climates.  These and other disproportionate impacts of climate disaster on poor and rural women should be addressed as the U.S. asserts leadership in this critical policy arena.

BWR strongly supports the Obama Administration's goal to "Make the U.S. a leader on Climate Change and reduce green house gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050."   Realizing this important goal will require that equity be a central consideration in the development of U.S. Climate Change policies including the return of revenue to local communities to offset impacts upon low-income communities, and the creation of public benefit funds to ensure equity and justice in the mitigation and adaptation to climate change.  

Fund research examining the specific and unique impact of proposed climate policies upon women as women comprise a disproportionate share of those living in poverty - those least able to adapt, survive and recover from catastrophic climate events such as Hurricane Katrina.  

OL: How did you get started? and/or develop a focus on gender & climate change?

FD: I am responsible for developing the BWR policy positions on environment and climate change.

OL: What are the greatest challenges they face?

FD: Resources.

OL: Conferences such as this one are always important for reasons outside of the formal structure.  What's happened so far that's been important for you and the work that brought you to Copenhagen?  

FD: The Africa group has matured enormously in terms of their participation in the COP and in the inclusion of women and the movement for "justice" has also evolved.  At the micro level all sorts of wonderful partnerships, information sharing, and collaborations have been created and advanced here in Copenhagen.  

OL:  Finally, I always like to end my interviews by asking, "What's the most important question I didn't ask?--And what's the answer?"  

FD: I am disappointed in the lack of support for women and gender from the United States.  President Obama has appointed women to key positions, created the White House Council on Women and Girls and the first legislation that he signed was Lilly Ledbetter supporting equity for women in the workplace but leadership on Climate Change requires that he supports women and gender mainstreaming in climate change negotiations and policies within the domestic and international arena.  

OL: Again, thank you very much for participating.