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feminist epistemology, political ecology or ethics of care are part of the social and the human sciences and primarily practiced by women researchers. Moreover, across the planet there is a disproportionate presence of women researchers in the social and the human sciences, although their numbers are low in senior positions as they hit glass ceilings in various institutions. However, this type of knowledge generated by social and human sciences is precisely that which has to reach policy makers in order to increase compliance, relevance, effectiveness and legitimacy in constituencies. People tend to abide by polices that they relate to and understand.


Although climate policy-making has been limited to market mechanisms, we know these would not be sufficient to change human behaviour, redesign institutions or lead to the much needed systemic and structural changes. There is urgency for the processes of policy formulation to be respectful and informed by people’s own aspirations and understandings of what changes are necessary and what futures to construct. Such information is always gender sensitive and likely to arise when policy-making processes are gender aware. These processes will lead to policy that is understood, accepted and implemented in meaningful ways.


Lastly, we have learned in the past decades that having women in politics matters. In climate policy making and negotiations, men


are a very large majority. The complexity and uncertainty of the issues, however, makes the policy process challenging. Much of the process is about value judgments and perceptions of risk. This calls for an understanding of policy in innovative ways. We know, through many other topics, that women tend to have a more cautious view of risks. There is empirical evidence that women are less likely to gamble with the future or to take risks about issues that may affect their own well- being and that of their children and families.


Increasing the presence of women in climate negotiations may make the processes more effective, and increasing the presence and substantive participation of women in policy making may lead to more credible and legitimate policy instruments. Importantly, the participation of women can also act as a catalyst for changes in existing unequal gender power relations in a society where climate change policy will be implemented. In short, we need more women in climate change science and we need a greater valuing of the sciences that women tend to favour, as well as greater support for pioneering women in male-dominated scientific and engineering fields. We need more women in climate change negotiations giving their voices to the policy decision-making processes. We need women at the frontlines of a new climate science and new forms of climate politics.


labour, and when high rates of men’s out-migration to urban cities, towns and cross-border destinations in the region and beyond, are considered.


Recent comparative research on the ‘feminisation’ of agriculture and natural resource management, undertaken by ICIMOD and supported by IFAD, illustrates this trend, whereby in some mountain regions in India women undertake 4.6 to 5.7 times the agricultural work men carry out. In Nepal, the range is skewed even more with women carrying out 6.3 to 6.6 times the agricultural work that men carry out (ICIMOD, forthcoming). Furthermore, national reports often present up to 64% of the population of women in South Asia as being “non-active or non-reported”, reflecting that much of women’s work in rural areas is informal, non- formal, unpaid and not counted, and thus goes unrecorded (FAO, 2010a).


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