The Gender Gap In Climate Activism
- Serafina Hills
- Feb 8, 2022
- 3 min read
What is the eco gender gap?
Climate change is a worsening issue, even with the changes in transport, it has risen by 0.08ppm last year. In 2019, this was acted upon as the tremendous issue it is, with protests staged in major cities all around the world, with the ‘leader’ Greta Thunberg, a seventeen-year-old from Sweden becoming a worldwide hero. However, this change has stopped, or slowed, and brought light to another issue - the gender gap.
Most people, when hearing the words ‘gender gap’ think about the pay for men and women and the disadvantages women may face in their careers. However, this is a different gender gap. This is the gender gap in environmental and climate activism. Not only seen in huge events, but also every-day life. This is more commonly known or labelled as the ‘eco gender gap’.
Nancy Unger, of Santa Clara University, researched this, and the history behind environmental activism. She found that women, seen as caregivers, were most likely to know what was in products such as cleaning etc, and they found out environmental impacts quickly. They took natural roles, as caregivers, to protect the environment, and did not let the stereotypes behind leadership get in their way as many organisations were formed to combat the various issues they found. This was the past insight into the eco gender gap. It is still very prominent today.
Source: The World Economic Forum
Today’s view on eco activism
With new advances and eco-friendly products launched daily, improvements may be made. However, products such as reusable forks, bamboo toothbrushes, etc, are for the vast majority bought by women.
This is not as complex as it seems. The predominant reason this occurs is purely because these products are marketed towards women. A study shows that men were even reluctant to hold a recyclable bag, to avoid being seen as ‘feminine’ or gay. I have been to discussions about this before, and the men I talked to found this also, in their daily life.
This has been a women’s role in the past and is now completely marketed, presented and seen that way. Evidence even suggests that ‘greenness’ and femininity are cognitively linked in the brains of both men and women. As such the green label might as well be a pink one.
When I first got into environmental activism in 2019, I was surrounded by my male peers who constantly made fun of me for it. I could never completely comprehend why caring about our planet was such a terrible thing to them. It was never a ‘cool’ thing and after learning about climate change for the first time at 10 years old, I quickly learnt that a few people actually cared. I was surrounded by people who didn’t, the majority of these being men. I had never once considered it was to protect their gender identity, although I had seen the eco gender gap in my everyday life for many years.
Plastic Freedom and Package Free Shop, two popular zero-waste online retailers, say they are careful to use gender-neutral marketing – but both say about 90% of their customers are women. Rachel Howell, a lecturer on sustainable development said the best way to combat this would be to change, or challenge the concept of a ‘women’s job’. The idea that women do laundry or chores etc only adds to the presentation of environmental care as feminine.
She also says, “Get rid of the idea of what a sustainable product looks like.” She points out that men may carry reusable water bottles, or a backpack without it being perceived or sold as green.
What you can do
Change starts with these companies, but it can also start with you. The views on climate change and environmental activism can be changed, with people taking positive action to make these changes.
With men trying to avoid eco-friendly products to protect their masculinity, yet another problem stemming from misogyny, not all products need to be marketed this way. Positive changes can be made without the ‘eco-friendly’ label that can be seen as feminine in itself. An example of this could be convincing a male friend to get a reusable water bottle. This, as many other eco-friendly alternatives posed, has various other benefits that could also be attractive to them. If even these minor changes are made by more men, the stigma will definitely fall, and the gap could change for good.
It all starts with you. And if you’re a man reading this, remember it’s not ‘feminine’ to care about the environment, or the world you live on. You can make small changes, and as a man, you have a lot more leverage to convince fellow men to do so too.
Sources:
14 See Suellen Hoy, “‘Municipal Housekeeping’: The Role of Women in Improving Urban Sanitation Practices, 1880-1917,”
Comments