Exploring Gender Role in Face of Climate Change in West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Assessing gender vulnerability and impacts to climate change needs to check various socio cultural, economic and biophysical factor that attributes to the variation in climate impacts .Of the socio-cultural resolution, this study targeted to assess the role that gender bears in the community, including their perception ,in shaping the impacts of climate change. The study was conducted in west shoa zone of Ethiopia, in Bako Tibe district. The research employs both quantitative and qualitative orientation through a holistic combination of qualitative and descriptive method of data analysis. Purposive and random sampling method was used to select sample Kebele and households respectively. Accordingly, 150 sample households were surveyed in the district, for wich 50 household equally represents their respective three agroecology or Kebele’s. In adition, FGD, direct observation and KII were used to generate qualitative information.The findings of the study discloses the prevalence of unequal gender role where women’s suffers from skewed division of labor, higher work load ,unequal access and control over resource  with in the household and community. In adition, Gender perception to climate change varies in the district and males tends to perceive the change more in line with the existing climatic data records. This all aggregates in varying gender livelihood asset strategy and possession, which finally contributes to the non-uniformity of climate change impacts among men and women. Hence, if gender disparity in terms of roles and responsibility is not readapted, climate change magnifies the existing pattern of discrimination to other sphere of complicated social issues and inequalities.

Keywords: Gender, Role and Climate change