“Famine Marriages” Just One Byproduct of Climate Change

[ensho]

http://www.ips.org/TV/beijing15/famine-marriages-just-one-byproduct-of-climate-change/


The negative fallout from climate change is having a devastatingly lopsided impact on women compared to men, from higher death rates during natural disasters to heavier household and care burdens.

In the 1991 cyclone disasters that killed 140,000 in Bangladesh, 90 percent of victims were reportedly women; in the 2004 Asian Tsunami, an estimated 70 to 80 percent of overall deaths were women.

And following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the United States, African-American women, who were the poorest population in some of the affected States in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, faced the greatest obstacles to survival, according to the New York-based Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO).

The 2007 Human Development Report, issued by the U.N. Development Programme, points out that women are particularly affected by climate change because they are the largest percentage – accounting for about 70 percent – of the poor population.

-snip-

June Zeitlin, a former executive director of WEDO, has cited a study by the London School of Economics analysing disasters in 141 countries that provides decisive evidence that gender differences in deaths from natural disasters are directly linked to women’s economic and social rights.

That is, gender inequalities are magnified in disaster situations. So when women lack basic rights, more women than men will die from natural disasters.

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The study also found the opposite to be true: in societies where women and men enjoy equal rights, natural disasters kill the same number of women and men.
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(stars are mine)

-snip-

In neighbouring Uganda, the food crises associated with climate change have been linked to higher rates of early marriage for girls, as they are exchanged for dowry or bride price.

These “famine marriages” – as they are called – not only lead to girls dropping out of school, but also make them vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections and related reproductive complications.

(women as the property of men)

-long snip-
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in this male driven world we women get the short end of the stick

THAT HAS GOT TO STOP

[aquart]

1. Patriarchy kills women. But we keep accepting patriarchy.

As if moderated patriarchy is benevolent.

[ensho]

2. true

nt

[femrap]

3. I don't accept it....

guess that's why I'm shunned on numerous levels. Being against patriarchy doesn't lead to popularity or even basic civility.

I wonder how long before this thread is locked and/or my comments deleted.

There are days in which I wish I were dumb, high-heeled, made up with fire red lipstick, donning a short-short skirt, stuffed with implants, and watching 'The Bachelor.'

Then I would be accepted.

I'm working on reclusivity....I made up that word...in remembrance of Mary Daly.

[ensho]

4. add me to remembrance of Mary Daly - a woman who wouldn't back down

I read all her books, etc. and sent her two of my art pieces that she inspired.

I loved her word 'snool' for the suited guys.

[SoCalDem]

5. In an extreme situation, women are often the ones left in charge of the children

Children impede urgent flight from impending disaster..

If you are a barefoot 20 yr old woman with 4 children under 5, you are going to have a hard time fleeing a flood, fire, earthquake..or finding food for all of them. Mothers will feed their kids before themselves..