WUNRN
UNRISD - UN Research Institute for
Social Development
GENDER IN THE GREEN ECONOMY
Author: Candice
Stevens - 15 June 2012
This is part of
a series on the importance of bringing the social dimension back into
discussions about green economy and sustainable development.
In the absence of appropriate social
policies, the green economy may exacerbate existing gender inequities to the
detriment of overall sustainability. As workers, women are being excluded from
the green economy due to gender-segregated employment patterns and discrimination.
As consumers, women are more likely than men to buy eco-friendly products but
they have limited purchasing power. As citizens, women are crucial to good
governance in the green economy but have little influence because very few
women hold management positions in both public and private sectors. The author
suggests policies that would assure a fuller role for women, including putting
female empowerment at the centre of development assistance programmes that aim
to promote the green economy in developing countries; mandating business to
adopt family-friendly practices to increase women’s participation in green
jobs; giving women special skills training to work in the green economy; and
enacting quotas to get more women onto corporate boards and in top-level
management positions in industry and government to increase their influence
over the shape of the green economy.
Candice Stevens is an economist who was previously the Sustainable
Development Advisor of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) in Paris, France. During her 25 years at the OECD, she was also Head of
the Industry Division, the Science and Technology Policy Division, and the
Environment and Trade Unit. She has authored numerous studies and publications
on sustainable development strategies, measurement approaches, and assessment
methodologies including Gender and Sustainable Development: Maximising the
Economic, Social and Environmental Role of Women for the OECD.
Structural gender inequality needs to be addressed to assure the well-being of
women, the successful transition to a green economy and the achievement of
sustainable development. In the absence of appropriate social policies, the
green economy may exacerbate existing gender inequities to the detriment of overall
sustainability.
Market-based approaches that emphasize economic growth have tended to exploit
and marginalize women in both developed and developing countries in their roles
as workers, consumers and citizens. For green growth strategies to succeed,
equity issues must be fully addressed. The income gap between rich and poor is
widening both within and between countries, and women make up the majority of
the world’s poorest citizens (UNRISD 2010). The green economy offers a
possibility for a more equitable sharing of revenue between men and women,
capital and labour, and rich and poor countries. But governments must act to
close gender gaps that threaten to make the green economy as inequitable as its
forerunners. Green economy approaches that emphasize women as workers in green
jobs, consumers of green products and citizens for green governance will
provide for long-term sustainability.
Women as workers
As workers, women are being excluded from the green economy due to
gender-segregated employment patterns and discrimination. It is expected that
50 million green jobs (for example, in industries or areas such as renewable
energy, forest protection and rehabilitation, water and sanitation
infrastructure, green housing, and environmental regulation) will be created
worldwide in the next 20 years, as governments and businesses invest in
reducing energy intensity, minimizing waste, and protecting and restoring
ecosystems. But various areas of the green economy are largely closed to women
due to the types of positions on offer. For example, women have long been
marginalized in the energy sector where they constitute less than 6 per cent of
technical staff and below 1 per cent of top managers. Women have less than 9
per cent of global construction jobs and their roles are generally
administrative and secretarial (ITUC 2009).
About 75 per cent of green jobs will be related to renewable energy and green
buildings. But the skilled energy and construction positions in the green
economy are primarily male-dominated. In developed countries, these are areas
which are characterized as “non-traditional” for women, defined as those where
more than 75 per cent of the workforce is of the opposite gender (ITUC 2009).
Although occupations that have traditionally been female-dominated (such as
secretaries, teachers, nurses and household help) may be greened, these are
often not regarded as a core component of job creation in the green economy
agenda.
Women agricultural workers who could initiate green activities in poorer countries
are often not part of the monied economy. In most developing regions, women are
concentrated in the most casual and exploitative forms of work (UNRISD 2010).
Sectors such as agriculture and forestry are predicted to be major
beneficiaries of the transition to a low-carbon economy and the source of at
least 2 million green jobs (in, for example, organic agriculture, biofuels and
forest conservation). Globally, women comprise less than 20 per cent of the
workforce in these primary sectors, however. The female labour force ranges
from 2 per cent in developed countries, where few women work in mechanized
agriculture, to as high as 60 per cent in developing countries, where many
low-income labourers are women working in small-scale farming and forestry-based
activities (ITUC 2009). Much female subsistence work is generally not included
in official government statistics owing to difficulties in identifying and
counting informal labourers. Although many green jobs can be created in
agriculture, forestry, ecotourism, and other resource-based sectors, the
marginal status of women in developing countries means they will likely not
reap major benefits.
More than 60 per cent of women worldwide work in the services sector (UN 2010).
However, men dominate the better paid jobs in finance and business services, as
well as engineering, which underlie the green economy. Although they are
engaged in many skilled services including teaching and nursing, female workers
are concentrated in administrative support tasks (clerks, secretaries and
customer service representatives) and the household sector (ITUC 2009). Women
in the developed world are acquiring engineering and business skills at the
same rate as men, but they confront barriers to their participation in better paid
service sectors due to discrimination and blocked career paths. While there are
qualified women in all areas of expertise to compete with men in providing
green services, women remain minority workers due to institutional
discrimination (OECD 2008).
Without policy changes and quotas for female participation in the public and
private sectors, the green economy will reproduce these patterns. This is
largely because women bear most responsibility for childcare and households,
causing them to suffer from time poverty, intermittency in employment and lack
of mobility, which negatively affects their career prospects. Due to
gender-segregated occupations, they work in jobs with inferior conditions and
little mobility. While some such work can be considered “green”, it is often
far from being decent work. Due to gender wage gaps, women are paid less than
men for doing the same tasks. Affordable childcare, paid parental leave and
flexible work arrangements would allow women to play a fuller role in the green
economy in developed countries. Ending discriminatory practices which
economically disadvantage women and putting female empowerment at the centre of
development assistance programmes would do the same for women in poorer
countries (OECD 2008).
Women as consumers
Women are generally greener and more sustainable than men in their buying
patterns as shown in surveys from several organizations including the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2008; IJISD 2009).
Studies of consumption trends in developed countries find that women are more
likely than men to buy recyclable, eco-labelled, energy-efficient and Fair
Trade products. In Europe and particularly in Scandinavia, women spend far more
time than men seeking information on sustainable consumption and lifestyle
alternatives. In these countries, women recycle, eat organic foods and purchase
green goods at higher rates than their male counterparts.
Although women account for some 80 per cent of household purchases in developed
countries, their limited purchasing power can act as a constraint on their
eco-consciousness translating into broader patterns of sustainable consumption
and production. Men tend to make fewer but more expensive purchases of
electronics, automobiles and luxury goods. As men maintain their control of
economic and financial systems, gender-based income gaps are growing (UN 2010).
The green economy could be invigorated through more widespread dispersal of
consumer purchasing power away from the rich and towards the middle and lower
classes, thus benefiting more women. The United States and the United Kingdom
have among the fastest growing divides between rich and poor among the OECD
countries. Many workers are failing to earn a living wage while corporate
executives, mostly male, are being granted excessive pay and bonuses. In 2011,
only the market for luxury goods was booming. As poverty levels rise, it is
single mothers who are the poorest members of these rich societies. If women
had more purchasing power, they would have greater influence over how firms
affect the environment and remunerate green workers. If women were more
prominent in public and private governance, they could advocate for greener
production methods and consumer goods (Stevens 2010).
Women and governance
As citizens, women have little influence on the direction of the green economy,
because they are rare in management and leadership positions in both the public
and private sectors. Although women’s presence in the workplace is growing,
more equal representation of women in economic and political leadership is
still a radical idea for many. Among Fortune 500 companies, women are only 3
per cent of CEOs, 6 per cent of top managers and 15 per cent of corporate board
members (UN 2010). Although studies find that firms with more women in
leadership positions exhibit better performance and higher profits, women will
likely continue to confront the glass ceiling in the green economy. without
significant changes in attitudes and policies. Women remain on the sidelines
even though their “risk-smart” approaches, eco-consciousness and leadership
strengths are sorely needed to drive the green economy and to create green jobs
(ITUC 2009).
Women are crucial to good governance in the green economy. Worldwide, only about
18 per cent of legislative seats are held by women, and in many countries there
are no female representatives at all. Yet UN statistics underline that women in
government give greater emphasis than men to social welfare and ecological
issues and tend to be less corrupt (UN 2010). Women, more than men, tend to
advocate government intervention in the marketplace to ban unsustainable
products and to subsidize environmentally friendly goods. The green gender gap
is most pronounced with regard to carbon taxes. European surveys show that
women far outnumber men in advocating carbon levies to account for the true
environmental costs of production and transport (OECD 2008). However, political
perspectives which favour technological quick fixes over regulatory intervention
fuel the market-based trajectory of the green economy.
OECD and other academic studies have found that fuller economic and political
participation by the world’s women would lead to higher rates of economic
growth, lower poverty levels, greater innovation, better business performance
and more social stability as well as reduced environmental damage (OECD 2008;
IJISD 2009). But male dominance and gender discrimination in rich and poor
countries mean women have few opportunities to influence economic, social or
environmental decision making. Policies are needed to ensure that the green
economy does not perpetuate global gender and income inequalities.
Policy making to ensure women’s role in a sustainable green economy
It is the responsibility of governments to make the green economy sustainable
through a range of policies which would assure a fuller role for women. These
include: Combating traditions and discrimination which economically
disadvantage women, and putting women’s empowerment at the centre of
development assistance programmes that aim to promote the green economy in
developing countries;
Gender gaps are extracting high economic costs and contributing to social
inequities and environmental degradation around the world. At present, we are
confronted with economic, environmental and social crises on a global scale.
Yet women are relegated to taking a back seat to the men who are driving these
unsustainable trends. Enlightened gender policies could steer the green economy
away from narrow male priorities and limited market-based perspectives. The
lack of progress on gender equality in all countries is at the heart of the
failure to advance more broadly on sustainable development. If women were in
more productive and decision-making roles, the world would be moving faster
towards sustainability in the economic, social and environmental sense.
REFERENCES
IJISD (International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development). 2009. Special
Issue on Gender and Sustainable Development, Volume 4, No 2-3.
ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation). 2009. Green
Jobs and Women Workers: Employment, Equity, Equality. Report
prepared by Candice Stevens for the International Labour Foundation for
Sustainable Development (SustainLabour), ITUC.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 2008. Gender
and Sustainable Development: Maximising the Economic, Social and Environmental
Role of Women. OECD. Paris.
Stevens, Candice. 2010. Are Women the Key to Sustainable Development?
Sustainable Development Insights, Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of
the Longer-Range Future, Boston University.
UN (United Nations). 2010. The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics.
United Nations, New York.
UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development ). 2010. Combating
Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics.
UNRISD, Geneva.