Empowering women essential for improved climate response

15/03/2022 0 Comments read Environment & Development, Gender

A girl making the Cambodian bamboo sticky rice with black beans in Battambang Province. Enabling women to participate in environmental decision-making is key to building a sustainable future for all. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 15.03.2022 (SciDev.Net): Women possess essential knowledge and skills, particularly at the local level, in the conservation and management of natural resources but have limited say in environmental decision-making, according to a report by UN Women Asia and the Pacific.

The report was published ahead of the 66th Commission on the Status of Women which is focusing on achieving gender equality in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes. It says engaging women in these areas is critical to effective climate action.

“Women’s relationship to the environment is different to men’s in several complex but interlocking ways,” says Sarah Knibbs, officer-in-charge at UN Women Asia and the Pacific. “They are more exposed to some of the risks and also have a unique contribution to make to the solutions.”

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Big rigs and the open road: women in driver’s seat

14/02/2022 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Gender

A triple road train. Photo Credit: Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney/Melbourne, 13.02.2022 (The Sun Herald and The Age): As a seven-year-old, sitting high on the passenger seat with her younger sister, Kersti Jones would observe her mum, Heather, drive a 53-metre triple road train. She would imagine being behind the wheel as she looked below at other cars whizzing by on the highway.

The truck was their mobile home for seven years as they crisscrossed the resource-rich and rugged landscape of Western Australia.

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Gender bias stymies women’s progress in STEM

11/02/2021 0 Comments read Gender, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 11.02.2021 (Scidev.Net): While women play a critical role in science and technology, women career scientists still face gender bias, accounting for only 28 percent of engineering graduates and 40 percent of graduates in computer science and informatics, according to UNESCO.

On the sixth UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science today, 11^th February, UNESCO has published one of the chapters on gender in science entitled To be Smart the Digital Revolution will Need to be Inclusive from the UNESCO Science Report scheduled for publication in April.

The chapter highlights that women are not benefitting fully from employment opportunities open to highly educated and skilled experts in cutting edge fields, such as artificial intelligence. Also, women founders of start-ups struggle to access finance, and in large tech companies they remain underrepresented in both leadership and technical positions.

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