Excerpt of International Women’s Day statement issued by Inger Andersen, director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.We are all fighters in the global battle for gender equality. And as we fast approach International Women’s Day we should rightly celebrate our successes, while also highlighting the areas where the world urgently needs more progress.
#MeToo swept across global headlines last year, putting a spotlight on the inequalities women face in the workplace and in their livelihoods. This is a spotlight that must continue broadening to shine on more aspects of women’s lives, including in the environmental sphere.
Women account for 80 percent of people displaced by climate change and are made more vulnerable when dry seasons affect crops, waters recede and firewood disappears, forcing women to work harder to feed and care for their families.
In India’s Brahmaputra Valley, girls drop out of school during floods because they need to spend more time collecting fuel and water from the river. Meanwhile, IUCN research published in 2015 and supported by UN Women showed that just 12 percent of 881 environmental ministries – for instance fisheries ministries or forestry ministries – in 193 UN member states are run by women.
Read the full statement here.
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