Does climate change aggravate gender inequalities?

Abstract

The effects of climate change are unequally distributed between female and male gender in agrarian communities, particularly in developing countries. The agrarian regions of South India offer some representative examples where extreme events such as drought and floods influence gender inequalities. The current study assesses the potential effects of climate change as reflected through weather extremes to gender in agricultural communities of Andhra Pradesh state in South India. The findings signify that no major existent inequalities could be found in the study areas. There is though some uncertainty on the income contribution of males and females in a household and the economic independency of female gender. All the more, a different attitude between men and women was confirmed towards the concerns and initiatives to be undertaken mainly against droughts events. This differentiation could be the cause for the creation of future inequalities because the unilateral decisions seem to provoke unequal access to natural, social and economic resources.