Copenhagen negotiators aiming to reduce the world’s carbon emissions will need to bridge the gap between developing and developed nations. Closing the gender gap may be one of the key ways to achieve those reductions.
Women worldwide are more likely to support environmental policies and are often the ones making eco-conscious decisions for their families. Last year, the OECD concluded in a report that women were more likely than men to support government policies to reduce emissions, such as carbon taxes. They are also more likely to buy sustainable products with a Fair Trade seal.
Advocates for sustainable development, which encompasses economic, environmental, and social factors, want to ensure that this eco-friendly sentiment is rewarded with equal opportunity for employment. According to a recent draft report by the International Labour Foundation for Sustainable Development (Sustainlabour) and UN Environment Programme, at least 80 percent of new global green jobs are expected in the construction (retrofitting building, transport infrastructure), manufacturing (fuel-efficient vehicles, pollution control equipment), and in energy production sectors. Women hold less than 25 percent of the world’s manufacturing jobs, including non-labor intensive computer and machine operation.
Their presence is even less pronounced in the workforces of construction and energy. In the developed world, female employees represent 20 percent of total employment in the energy sector, of which six percent are technical staff, four percent have decision-making powers, and less than one percent comprises top-management. With policymakers selling middle class “green-collar” jobs hand-in-hand with cutting emissions, it may be time to consider where the secondary educated female workforce fits beyond traditionally lower paid administrative roles.
Labor organizations, NGOs, and the UN are pushing for gender-sensitive policies to tap into women’s burgeoning environmental awareness and raise their earning potential in the workforce, especially in the developing world. Ecotourism, which currently accounts for about seven percent of all international travel and is expected to increase at an annual rate of ten to 30 percent, is an example of a growing business where women internationally are poised to benefit.
At home, a newly-formed Women’s Economic Security Campaign published a policy brief highlighting green jobs in American industries that have low female participation such as electrical contracting and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system installation. President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus plan allocates $142 billion to environmental, transport, and renewable energy projects. On Tuesday, at the Brookings Institution, the president proposed “a boost in investment in the nation’s infrastructure” beyond the Recovery Act to work on roads, bridges, water systems, Superfund sites, and clean energy projects. During a time of economic recession at home, social issues are politically sensitive and often difficult to rectify without educational improvements and changing cultural norms.
The UN/Sustainlabour report demands green stimulus money with “strings attached.” Based on the 1992 U.S. Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Act, governments can provide financial and technical assistance to employers and unions for female training, apprenticeships, placement programs, and competitive grants. Flexible work schedules, equal pay, mentoring, support networks, and adequate benefits are also likely to retain females in nontraditional jobs, according to the study.
As economic woes dominate the headlines, green jobs have been sold to the public as a “two-for-one” deal even as respected economists, including Robert Stavins of Harvard University, debate the validity of green jobs arguments. If domestic and international taxpayers are footing the bill for such broad stimulus strategies, advocates for sustainable and equitable policies will lobby for interventions to overcome gender gaps. Ultimately, decision makers will need continued support from women to inspire public favor for contentious emissions reductions policies.
Aysha Ghadiali is a Research Associate at Resources for the Future.