•  
  •  
 

Abstract

This paper analyzes how African feminist theories can provide nuanced insights into the gendered dimensions of climate change across the continent. African feminist theories provide essential 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 the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change. The main argument is not only that climate change will be experienced by men and women differently but also that the impacts will hurt women more severely. Yet this theorization must employ theoretical lenses that place African women at the center of analysis. African feminist theories will be utilized 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 thoroughly grounded and informed by local realities. African feminist theories are neither unitary nor homogenous but represent a radical rethinking of women’s experiences on the continent. However, the theories speak directly to two concepts critical to this study: positionality and intersectionality. By positionalities, the study analyses 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 thus focuses on highlighting the intersectional complexities characterized 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.

Download

Share

COinS