Today we celebrate the International Women’s DayThe United Nations began to commemorate this event in 1975, which originated in the women’s demonstrations at the beginning of the 20th century demanding the right to vote, better working conditions and equality between the sexes.
This year, the slogan is “Invest in women, accelerate progress”, an idea that highlights the need to bet on female talent to face the transformation we need.
The UN has identified five key areas to ensure that women are not left behind, including progress toward sustainable development. According to the organization, “the current economic system exacerbates poverty, inequality and environmental degradation, disproportionately affecting women, especially those who face multiple discrimination.
It is therefore essential to continue working towards a more egalitarian society, in which the benefits of the ecological transition are equal for all people, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.
LESS PRESENCE IN THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION
Understanding the relationship between gender and environment and integrating women’s leadership in decision-making is key to addressing environmental challenges in a sustainable and equitable manner.
Women and men contribute differently to the causes of climate change. Individual ecological footprints are the result of the distribution of gender roles and responsibilities, as the report highlights. “Gender and climate change. A diagnosis of the situation“The Women’s Institute. Despite this, women are more vulnerable to the impact of climate change than men, as they make up the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent on the natural resources affected by its threats. This document estimates that 80% of climate-related refugees are women, that they are 14% more likely to die in natural disasters, and that heat waves increase the risk of premature births.
Despite knowing the situation, enhancing gender equality in the context of the climate crisis is still a pending task. Proof of this is that more than 80% of jobs related to climate change in managerial positions are held by men, according to data from the European Institute for Gender Equality.
Similarly, in the field of the environment and biodiversity, in sectors such as energy, mobility, agri-food and fisheries, women’s participation in decision-making, in the ownership of means of production or in employment is low, which limits progress towards real equality. According to the report “Women’s green entrepreneurship and women’s entrepreneurship in rural areas“, by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, only one in 10 people who undertake green activities and one in six salaried people in green activities are women.
ACTIONS WITH A GENDER PERSPECTIVE
In addition to this, and although there has been progress in recent years, the integration of an adequate gender approach in policies, programs and projects related to the environment is still lacking in many of them.
At Fundación Biodiversidad we have been incorporating the gender perspective transversally in all our lines of action for years, from a systemic, global and sustainable approach.
In this way, we aspire to promote transformations with the projects we develop and support, which are mobilizing a significant volume of resources. On the one hand, we incorporate gender equality assessment criteria in the regulatory bases of our calls for grants. But it is not only limited to the selection of candidates; we also promote the integration of the gender perspective throughout the life cycle of the projects thanks to the Guide to include the gender perspective in projects of entities with which we collaborate.
On the other hand, the Empleaverde Program+ and the Emprendeverde Networkwhich aim to promote the creation and consolidation of companies in the green economy and to increase entrepreneurial skills, identify women as a priority group, including evaluation criteria that give priority to the presence of women and the development of actions related to women, which favors the support of initiatives that seek to value their role, their contribution to employment and green entrepreneurship and as active social agents in the generation of wealth and the conservation and protection of biodiversity.
Furthermore, within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), the role of women is fundamental to ensure a more sustainable, egalitarian and inclusive model. Support for women’s entrepreneurship in the different sectors of the green economy throughout the country combines two of the fundamental pillars of the PRTR, which is committed to a greener country without gender gaps.
For its part, the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has also incorporated the gender approach into its regulatory and strategic framework, focusing on women as agents of change. Among these relevant plans and strategies are the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change 2021-2030 and the Long-term Strategy for a modern, competitive and climate-neutral Spanish economy by 2050.
