Paper/Proposal Title
African Feminist Theories and the Gendered Dimensions of Climate Change in Africa
Location
M2320
Start Date
November 2023
End Date
November 2023
Keywords
climate change, African feminism, situated knowledges, gender
Abstract
This paper analyses how African feminist theories can provide nuanced insights into the gendered dimensions of climate change across the continent. African feminist theories provide important insights into the everyday lived experiences of women within African spaces, allowing for a contextual analysis of the impacts of climate change. There has also been a growing recognition of the need to identify gender-differentiated impacts of climate change (Tuana 2013). The main argument is not only that climate change will be experienced by men and women differently but also that women will be more severely hurt by the impacts than men (MacGregor 2010). Yet this theorisation still needs to employ theoretical lenses that place African women at the centre of analysis. African feminist theories will be utilised to provide a theoretical account of embodied gender differences grounded in the complex realities of African women’s everyday experiences. African gender theories argue that research on women’s realities should be fully grounded in and informed local realities. African feminist theories are neither unitary nor homogenous but represent a radical rethinking of women’s experiences on the continent. The theories, however, speak directly to two concepts which will be key to this study: positionality and intersectionalities. By positionalities, the study will analyse how experiences of climate change depend on where women are situated and the conditions within which they exist that shape access and control of resources for resilience. The paper will thus focus on highlighting the intersectional complexities characterised by generational, class, identity, racial schisms and ethnic coalitions, as well as contradictions that define every day for women in different conditions on the continent.
Author/Speaker Biographical Statement(s)
Dr Manase Kudzai Chiweshe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social and Community Development, University of Zimbabwe and a Research Associate in the Department of Sociology, Rhodes University, South Africa. He won the 2015 Gerti Hesseling Prize for Best Paper Published in African Studies. His work revolves around the sociology of everyday life in African spaces with a special focus on promoting African ways of knowing with a specific interest in gender, urban sociology, agrarian studies, identity, land and livelihoods.
African Feminist Theories and the Gendered Dimensions of Climate Change in Africa
M2320
This paper analyses how African feminist theories can provide nuanced insights into the gendered dimensions of climate change across the continent. African feminist theories provide important insights into the everyday lived experiences of women within African spaces, allowing for a contextual analysis of the impacts of climate change. There has also been a growing recognition of the need to identify gender-differentiated impacts of climate change (Tuana 2013). The main argument is not only that climate change will be experienced by men and women differently but also that women will be more severely hurt by the impacts than men (MacGregor 2010). Yet this theorisation still needs to employ theoretical lenses that place African women at the centre of analysis. African feminist theories will be utilised to provide a theoretical account of embodied gender differences grounded in the complex realities of African women’s everyday experiences. African gender theories argue that research on women’s realities should be fully grounded in and informed local realities. African feminist theories are neither unitary nor homogenous but represent a radical rethinking of women’s experiences on the continent. The theories, however, speak directly to two concepts which will be key to this study: positionality and intersectionalities. By positionalities, the study will analyse how experiences of climate change depend on where women are situated and the conditions within which they exist that shape access and control of resources for resilience. The paper will thus focus on highlighting the intersectional complexities characterised by generational, class, identity, racial schisms and ethnic coalitions, as well as contradictions that define every day for women in different conditions on the continent.
