Chinese Women and Climate Change
By: Yuan Zhou (she/her/hers) and Xiaoyan Sun (she/her/hers)
A decade ago, China’s domestic policy situation was regarded to be unfriendly to emissions reduction by many scholars and global leaders. However, changes in the past ten years have reflected remarkable progress. Climate change and environmental protection have become increasingly important in China. The country has formulated and strictly enforced a series of policies to address climate change directly. Internationally, many nations looked to China to fill the leadership vacuum left by the United States in global environmental policymaking when the Trump administration announced the United States’ withdrawal from the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. China’s growing presence in global environmental policymaking and its rapidly growing economy have positioned China as an exemplar and leader in the future of climate change discussions.
In this context, the questions of women and gender in China’s climate change policy becomes all the more timely. We argue for the importance of studying China’s climate change policies from a gender perspective, particularly given the speed and import of action.
We examine gender differences in perceptions of climate change and in the impacts of climate change policies in China. We proved that the climate change impact are and will continue to be distributed differently among genders in China due to their different social roles. And certain demographical and environmental features of China do tailor climate change’s effects in both localized and gendered ways. In natural disasters, food and water shortages and climate migration, women all suffered more. Concerning the perceptions, Chinese men and women hold different views of climate change. Some study in China showed a “gender gap” and that Chinese men demonstrate greater concern for climate change and environmental degradation. This indicated that the “gender gap” relates to educational and economic disparities and may manifest differently in various places.
We also examine the environmental-related content in China’s gender policies and the gender-related content in its climate change policies. Through the comparison between these two, we argue that it is easier to include climate change in gender policies in China than to include gender in climate change policies and that the integration of these two is anything but robust. We go through the changes in administrative organization and policy formulation concerning gender equality, and find out that despite the low integration level, gender and the environment (climate change in particular) have been officially recognized as part of China’s gender equality policy. However, when we turn to the official environmental policy, very little mention of gender has been made.
Finally, we analyzed the multiple and varied roles played by women in climate change policy-making, as well as women’s conspicuous absence from some key high-level political conversations. We used gender analysis to offer a more complex and layered picture of women’s roles and provide possible measures for gender sensitive policy. Looking at women’s reproductive labor, productive labor, community management labor and political participation, we suggest women’s relationship with climate change can be explored, evaluated, and engaged on various levels. And gender analysis of women’s roles in dealing with climate change can serve as a foundation for China to involve gender awareness in its climate change policies.
In conclusion, gender awareness in Chinese climate change policy needs to be supplemented by gender sensitivity and we suggest some measures to move toward this goal. Gender mainstream considerations should be added into national and sub-national climate change policies, plans, strategies or programs and their implementation. Substantial efforts are needed to increase women’s political participation, given that the low proportion of Chinese women involved in climate change politics. In addition, some awareness-raising and educational initiatives regarding climate change mitigation, environmental protection and their relevance to gender should be launched.
Read the full article here: Toward gender sensitivity: women and climate change policies in China
Dr. Yuan Zhou is a lecturer in department of foreign studies in North China Electric Power University. Her research focuses on international relations, gender studies, and environmental governance.
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