Gender Equality Mainstreaming Digest – June 2017 Issue
Here are the highlights of this month’s Gender Equality Mainstreaming Digest! Click HERE for the full version.
Tulips. Photo courtesy of D. Ceplis.
Highlights:
Opportunities and Upcoming Events:
Agricultural Youth Green Jobs Initiative – Federal program helping fund internships for post-secondary graduates and high school students working in the agriculture industry, that include activities or projects that benefit the environment. Applications accepted starting April 26, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT). Applicants are strongly that will benefit the agriculture sector.
Bursary for Women Farmers – Through the Government of Alberta’s Status of Women Program, Organic Alberta and Young Agrarians are pleased to offer bursaries for the Soil Health Masterclass with Nicole Masters to be held on June 21 & 22 in Ferintosh, AB. Selected bursary applicants will be able to take the course for free! (regular price $275). Apply by June 9th.
Webinar: Gender, climate change and agriculture – The agriculture gender gap means men and women have differing abilities to access resources, participate in decision making, and adapt to climate change. Together, the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security’s Gender and Social Inclusion unit and the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research present the webinar “Gender, Climate Change, and Agriculture.” Experts will discuss a range of topics related to agriculture and gender on Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 13:30 – 15:00 GMT.
Save the Date: Gender Summit is coming to Canada for the first time in 2017 – From November 6 to 8, 2017, close to 600 advocates of gender equality policy from science, innovation and development fields will participate in the Gender Summit North America 2017, to be held in Montréal, Canada. It is a great honour for Canada to welcome the Summit and its participants for the first time. Those present will have the opportunity to engage in fruitful discussions under the overarching theme of “Pluralism, Ethnicity & Inclusion – Canadian Values in a Global Context”.
This Month’s News:
The role ahead for women in agriculture – Unless farm women get more power and a bigger share of the farm voice, Krysta Harden believes agriculture will fail its greatest tests, feeding the globe and reconnecting with consumers. Today, women make up about half of the agricultural labour force worldwide and are over 60 per cent of graduates from U.S. agricultural schools. Yet those women own and operate a disproportionately small number of farms, says Harden. “Women contributing to farming, to agriculture, isn’t new. It’s how we value their contribution that’s new,” she says. “They have as much to lose as their partners. They’re COOs and CFOs of farm businesses, and yet we call them a ‘Farm Wife’?”. Harden strongly feels that women have to help women. She tries to empower other women and encourage them to take leadership roles, even though it might come at a cost.
Ag census logs more female farm operators – While people age 55 and over still make up the fastest-growing segment of farmers in Canada, the latest Census of Agriculture shows slightly more producers under age 35 for the first time in five censuses.
Statistics Canada’s 2016 Census of Agriculture, released Wednesday, counted 271,935 farm operators — that is, people who make management decisions on an agricultural enterprise — on agricultural operations, down from 293,925 at the previous census in 2011.
Of those, StatsCan said, operators under 35 years of age accounted for an increasing share of total operators and their absolute numbers also rose, from 24,120 in 2011 to 24,850 in 2016, for the first absolute increase in that age bracket of operators since 1991.
Women also accounted for an increasing share of operators in 2016, at 77.970, or 28.7 per cent, up from 27.4 per cent in 2011. Of farm operators aged 35-54 years, women made up 30.7 per cent, followed by age 55-plus (27.7 per cent) and under 35 (26.4 per cent).
Reports Publications and Resources:
Gender and climate finance – As the Earth’s average surface temperatures rises, so do the associated costs. Because marginalized communities and groups (e.g., women, immigrants, the elderly, the disabled) are more exposed to climatic risk, the costs of climate change are more difficult for them. Women are structurally vulnerable, and climate change can worsen existing gender-based inequities that keep them impoverished and marginalized. Climate finance (‘financial flows mobilized by industrialized country governments and private entities that support climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries’) can catalyse the much-needed transition to zero-carbon and climate-resilient development while also fostering equitable social policy, including gender equality and women’s empowerment. While the recent integration of gender considerations into key multilateral climate finance mechanisms, including the recently operationalized Green Climate Fund, are steps in the right direction, gender considerations have yet to be effectively mainstreamed in ongoing climate change programmes and activities, and national planning. To enhance the efficacy of supported actions and ensure their long-term viability, hence maximizing the impact of climate finance, existing funding mechanisms across scales need to tackle deeply rooted structural inequities.
Book: Understanding Climate Change through Gender Relations – This book, edited by Susan Buckingham and Virginie Le Masson, explains how gender, as a power relationship, influences climate change related strategies, and explores the additional pressures that climate change brings to uneven gender relations. It considers the ways in which men and women experience the impacts of these in different economic contexts. The chapters dismantle gender inequality and injustice through a critical appraisal of vulnerability and relative privilege within genders. Part I addresses conceptual frameworks and international themes concerning climate change and gender, and explores emerging ideas concerning the reification of gender relations in climate change policy. Part II offers a wide range of case studies from the Global North and the Global South to illustrate and explain the limitations to gender-blind climate change strategies.
The Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Working Group of the Agricultural Institute of Canada gathers information and articles on an ongoing basis on gender quality mainstreaming within agriculture, scientific research, rural development, climate change, organizational development and international development. The views and opinions presented are not necessarily representative of AIC.
Back issues of the GEM Digest are available here.