Women and the quest for sustainability

In an era when "sustainability" is the buzzword among the environmentally conscious, there is increasing recognition that achieving sustainability and alleviating poverty go hand in hand. In this environment, women's issues must become a top priority.

Worldwide, women are more susceptible to poverty and its associated problems. They often have limited access to a myriad of services, including education and health care. Discrimination in employment policies and social systems exacerbate the situation. While most of us are familiar with the issue of the income gap – women continue to earn 70 cents for every dollar that a man makes in a similar job – we might not be as familiar with the fact that women make up 40 percent of the global work force but earn only 26 percent of the income (and this counts only paid work and not housework).

In some countries, like Jamaica, women head households not necessarily by choice (or gender equity), but because the 'baby-fathers' (as they are called) do not partake in the caretaking of their children. In such societies, men impregnate women as a demonstration of virility, leaving the women trapped with ever expanding families in the hopes that the next 'baby-father' will stick around. In the meantime, they are caught in a downward spiraling poverty cycle.

Studies show that efforts to lift communities out of poverty are more likely to succeed if they are targeted at women. When educated, women are better able to make health and household decisions, and find more skilled (and better paying) jobs. Employment and access to resources afford choices.

Reaching out to women often has ripple effects. For example, when women are provided access to affordable healthcare, infant mortality declines and childhood nutrition is enhanced. More often than not, increased income for women also translates into capital investments, like education and food for children, as well as lowered birth-rates. All of which promotes a healthier and more sustainable planet.

It is fitting then to remember that the very idea of "sustainability" started with a woman – Gro Harlem Brundtland. As Prime Minister of Norway, Brundtland chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. The enduring concept in the Brundtland report is "sustainable development" – defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

This vague exhortation received much criticism, and debates continue as to what it constitutes and how to get there. While we have yet to provide a definitive answer on what is sustainability, we have definitively answered that it cannot occur without addressing the challenges that women face.

Wei Ying Wong is the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment at Connecticut College. 

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