Environment & Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Environment & Society - Essay Example In poor countries for instance, women are mostly involved in activities such as fetching water, fetching fuel for domestic use and agriculture and therefore they understand the issues relating to the availability of water and other natural resources. This can be seen in the Bolivia water issues where women were the most affected by the rising water prices. The concept that gender has an effect on the way the society relates with the environment is predicated on the fact that gender roles and division of labour between the two genders determine how the society relates with the environment. Gender differences for instance determine how much each gender knows about the issues of environment and environment management. As Levy (pp. 8-12) says, in societies where there is no gender equality and women are left to do the lowly domestics tasks, they have the least knowledge about environment and this makes it harder for these women to be able to participate efficiently in conserving the envi ronment. This can be seen clearly in developing and underdeveloped world where women are not involved in the environment programs; yet, they are the ones who interact with the environment every day as they go about their daily economic activities such as fetching water, fetching fuel, farming etc. Differences in gender also result in differences in the way the environment is used. ... At the same time, the gender differences determine who will be involved in the management of the environment. This is very important because of a number of issues. To begin with, when gender inequalities are high, women are not involved in the management of the environment and this makes it harder for the management of the environment to be done in a holistic way. In almost any society, women are always the majority and this means that they are instrumental in helping to manage the environment. Failing to involve them in the management of the environment only leads to an ineffective environment management. It is also clear that in societies where gender inequalities are higher, women are not only left out in the management of the environment but are also likely to involve in the negative interaction with the environment. This is because such women are also left out in participating in the modern socioeconomic activities, leaving them to only have access to harmful economic activities . Failing to involve women in the proper management of the economy has a double negative impact in that in such a situation the majority of the population is not involved and the part of the society which involved itself the most in interacting with the environment are not involved in managing it. Environmental degradation also seems to affect different genders in a different way. Women for instance are affected in a more negative way when the environment is harmed since they are the ones who need the resources from nature the most. This difference in the way environmental degradation affects the gender is also an indication that gender has an effect in the way the gender affects the way in which the society interacts with the environment. When for instance the water catchments are