What does gender equality have to do with climate change? Exploring why the experiences of women are key to sustainable development and emissions reductions

For International Women’s day 2024, the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability & Resillience Insititute (SRI) at the University of Southampton is guest hosted by SRI colleagues Alice Brock and Grace Compton, who wanted to explore the intersection between Gender and Climate Change. In this episode they discuss the Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Equality, how the impacts and burden of climate change disproportionately affect women, and what can be done to tackle this, including the role of policy makers and women in leadership. We speak with two women working to further these solutions at the University of Southampton. Dr Pauline Leonard talks about her research on gender and sustainable transport, and Sue Littlemore speaks about her experience of male bias throughout her career as a senior leader. We also discuss the importance of taking an intersectional approach to understanding the scale of the challenge, as women’s lived experiences vary greatly based on characteristics such as race, income, and disabilities. We also hear from Lily Kilner and Sophie Green, final year students at the University of Southampton about their perspectives on the connections between climate change, gender roles and responsibility to implement more sustainable behaviours. This episode includes a call to action for those working in research to consider how they are including the experiences and voices of women in their research on drivers of sustainable development and tackling climate change. Guests: Sue Littlemore, Director of Civic, Dr Pauline Leonard, Director of the Gender and Transport Research Group, Sophie Green, BSc Geography Student and Lily Kilner, BSc Environmental Science Student. Hosts: Grace Compton, Policy Officer for the Sustainability and Resilience Institute and Alice Brock, Sustainable Development Goals Officer for the Sustainability and Resilience Institute, and PhD student studying sustainable choices and behaviours.   Editor: Lily Kilner, BSc Environmental Science Year 3 student For more resources on this topic, we recommend:  https://www.shechangesclimate.orgThe intersectional environmentalisthttps://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-how-climate-change-disproportionately-affects-womens-health/