GENDER-TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: ADVANCING SOCIAL EQUITY

The paper argues that ignoring gender and power inequalities in climate adaptation is maladaptive and recommends transforming social structures to ensure equitable resilience. It analyzes six key systems—natural environment, food security, sustainable cities, infrastructure, industry, and finance—demonstrating how patriarchal norms and intersecting inequalities (such as class, ethnicity, and age) disproportionately burden women and marginalized groups. The authors advocate for rigorous gender analyses, the redistribution of care work, and the inclusion of diverse voices in decision-making to move beyond tokenistic gender mainstreaming toward systemic, gender-transformative change.

• Broader political and economic structures often compromise local livelihoods through the extraction of resources by powerful actors, which disproportionately harms small producers and poor households, including women.
• Intersecting inequalities—including gender, low income, migrant status, sexuality, ethnicity, age, and disability—combine to undermine the assets, opportunities, and adaptive capacities of individuals.
• Patriarchal social practices restrict women's autonomy and voices, which increases their vulnerability as climate change hazards intensify.
• Climate change programs associated with the 'green economy,' such as carbon markets and industrial agriculture, risk 'elite capture' and the re-masculinization of opportunities, which can reinforce existing exclusions.
• In the natural environment, women's lack of legal land and resource rights hinders nature-based adaptation; however, where women have secure rights, they contribute significantly to biodiversity and forest restoration.
• In agriculture, women often lack access to irrigation and capital, yet when they control these resources, they tend to plant a more diverse range of crops, which enhances household food security and economic resilience.
• Urban planning often fails to account for gendered mobility and care-work travel patterns, and marginalized groups, including transgender women, are frequently excluded from post-disaster housing and relief efforts.
• Infrastructure deficits in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) disproportionately affect women and girls, yet these transformative investments are less likely to receive private or public-private partnership financing compared to energy or transport.
• Climate-proofing industrial supply chains often prioritizes flexibility and diversification, which can lead to precarious labor conditions, low wages, and job insecurity for semi-skilled women workers.
• Climate finance remains gender-blind or treats gender as an afterthought; for example, OECD data from 2014 showed only 3% of climate overseas development assistance had gender equality as a primary objective.

APA

Resurrección, B. P., Bee, B. A., Dankelman, I., Park, C. M. Y., Haldar, M., & McMullen, C. P. (2019). GENDER-TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: ADVANCING SOCIAL EQUITY. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Gender_Transformative_Climate_Adaptation_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf

Chicago

Resurrección, Bernadette P., Beth A. Bee, Irene Dankelman, Clara Mi Young Park, Mousumi Haldar, and Catherine P. McMullen. GENDER-TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: ADVANCING SOCIAL EQUITY. World Resources Institute, 2019. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Gender_Transformative_Climate_Adaptation_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Resurrección |first1=Bernadette P. |last2=Bee |first2=Beth A. |last3=Dankelman |first3=Irene |last4=Park |first4=Clara Mi Young |last5=Haldar |first5=Mousumi |last6=McMullen |first6=Catherine P. |title=GENDER-TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: ADVANCING SOCIAL EQUITY |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2 October 2019 |url=https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Gender_Transformative_Climate_Adaptation_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{resurreccin2019gendertransformative, author = {Resurrección, Bernadette P. and Bee, Beth A. and Dankelman, Irene and Park, Clara Mi Young and Haldar, Mousumi and McMullen, Catherine P.}, title = {{GENDER-TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: ADVANCING SOCIAL EQUITY}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = oct, url = {https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Gender_Transformative_Climate_Adaptation_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }