Gender Equity
In conversation with Ash Peplow Ball
Ash Peplow Ball (she/her) is the managing director of Women Transforming Cities, which is a grassroots organization based in Musqueam, Squamish and Tseilwathuth territories in British Columbia. We are an advocacy campaigning, organization that focuses primarily on the experiences of women, girls, and people made marginalized by their gender, in cities and in urban spaces. As a part of that we support people who otherwise wouldn't normally see themselves represented in the civic process to both run for elected office, but also to engage as a resident as a voter, as someone that could participate on an advisory committee, speak to council get more engaged in city politics.
Q: What are ways some ways that Women Transforming Cities is contributing to building sustainable cities and incorporating sustainable practices within the organization itself?
A: "We have a big focus on the way that the changing climate is affecting cities and in particular how it's affecting the people that are most affected by a changing climate. Tangible ways that we're doing that is by putting pressure and ensuring the city of Vancouver remains accountable to the implementation of their climate emergency action plan, and that we worked with them to ensure that there was an intersectional lens on that plan. This includes thinking about inequities are considered when it comes to the mitigation the city is planning, the emergency response, the city is planning, but also some of the like funding mechanisms to implement these things. You can't talk about climate justice without talking about racial justice, disability, justice, gender justice, it's about it's like deeply about inequity."
A: "We have a big focus on the way that the changing climate is affecting cities and in particular how it's affecting the people that are most affected by a changing climate. Tangible ways that we're doing that is by putting pressure and ensuring the city of Vancouver remains accountable to the implementation of their climate emergency action plan, and that we worked with them to ensure that there was an intersectional lens on that plan. This includes thinking about inequities are considered when it comes to the mitigation the city is planning, the emergency response, the city is planning, but also some of the like funding mechanisms to implement these things. You can't talk about climate justice without talking about racial justice, disability, justice, gender justice, it's about it's like deeply about inequity."
Q: What role does gender and gender equity play in the climate justice movement? And in what ways do you see women and marginalized gendered folks on the frontlines of the climate crisis?
A: "When you look at that crisis through an intersectional lens, you see, who are the people that are most impacted by this change by changing climate in you know, in an urban environment, and it is women, it's racialized folk, it's people who are unhoused, it's seniors. Thinking of the heat dome in 2021, I have friends in the service and hospitality sectors, that are primarily women of colour - people that are working in the unsecure, non permanent, not well supported, minimum wage workforce - and they were fainting work, they were getting heatstroke...There are these really tangible impacts that the climate that a warming climate and, and a changing climate is having on people's lives. When I think about how gender equity plays in the climate crisis, I think about what we're seeing now day to day in Vancouver - how increased air pollution, smoke, inhalation, heat, domes, flooding, tornadoes, cyclones, increased extreme weather events affecting people and how it is disproportionately affecting people who are poorer, who are in underpaid precarious labour.
Beyond the impacts of climate change, there are the people that are fighting this fight. There are Indigenous people who have been in relationship with land since time immemorial and who have been advocating for the last 50 years or so.. And it's primarily Indigenous women who are standing up against resource extraction, pipeline expansion, against the logging of old growth, which we know has devastating impacts on the climate. Men are not showing up in the same number as women and there's a lot of research to show that women, femme folks, and gender marginalized, trans people understand climate change and justice because they have experienced some form of oppression. Even if they have other layers of intersecting privilege, like they just by their gender identity, they understand what it feels like to be marginalized and to be oppressed."
Q: How can elements of intersectional feminism be incorporated into climate solutions?
A: "Intersectional feminism is about understanding and taking time to consider the ways that people's multifaceted identities affect the way they move through a world. This is a society that was constructed and continues to be upheld by very specific power structures that have a very vested interest in a certain type of person succeeding. So when you think about any public policy, solution, any program to combat climate, it is placing an intersectional lens that means considering the people that are benefiting from this? Who are the people that are being left behind? What are the unintended consequences? How does this hold up systems of power and oppression and colonization, that are very hard to do anything and not uphold those because the whole system is created that way.
It's also how are making sure that what's happening is available in accessible languages, that it's giving the people the information where they are not expecting people to go to government resources for that information. We need buses and people, buddy systems, whatever it might be making sure seniors, people with disabilities can get from their housing to the library, and then get back home to their houses. It has to be wraparound considering all of the barriers that people face to accessing a solution because of their intersecting identities and the way that they show up in society in the world. If you do that work through an intersectional lens, then everybody benefits. If you design your climate solution in a city like Vancouver, you're designing it for that person that is experiencing the most marginalization because of the way our city is built, then you were designing solutions that work for everybody."
Q: How can elements of intersectional feminism be incorporated into climate solutions?
A: "Intersectional feminism is about understanding and taking time to consider the ways that people's multifaceted identities affect the way they move through a world. This is a society that was constructed and continues to be upheld by very specific power structures that have a very vested interest in a certain type of person succeeding. So when you think about any public policy, solution, any program to combat climate, it is placing an intersectional lens that means considering the people that are benefiting from this? Who are the people that are being left behind? What are the unintended consequences? How does this hold up systems of power and oppression and colonization, that are very hard to do anything and not uphold those because the whole system is created that way.
It's also how are making sure that what's happening is available in accessible languages, that it's giving the people the information where they are not expecting people to go to government resources for that information. We need buses and people, buddy systems, whatever it might be making sure seniors, people with disabilities can get from their housing to the library, and then get back home to their houses. It has to be wraparound considering all of the barriers that people face to accessing a solution because of their intersecting identities and the way that they show up in society in the world. If you do that work through an intersectional lens, then everybody benefits. If you design your climate solution in a city like Vancouver, you're designing it for that person that is experiencing the most marginalization because of the way our city is built, then you were designing solutions that work for everybody."
“Women and femme people are doing this underpaid, under-resources, hard work to try to create change and rebuild a system that is more equitable and allows people to live safely.”
Q: What makes you feel hopeful in the midst of converging crises and where do you see the wheels turning towards more meaningful changes being made? A: I believe so fundamentally in people power and the power of communities to show up. When I think about where I'm feeling hope in the climate crisis. I feel hope and strength and grief and all of these things combined when I look at like the resistance of Wet'suwet'en and the resistance that's being led by indigenous people on indigenous land. I know that anything that's worth fighting for is really hard. It's going to take a really long time. And I think the longer I've been in this space, the more patient I've got, because I've realized that change happens incredibly slowly until it happens very, very fast. You need to be ready for those moments where it happens really fast. I hoped that the heat dome last year would be one of those moments here in the Lower Mainland and in British Columbia. It maybe wasn't the wake up call that maybe some of the people in the positions of power needed. But I definitely feel fear going into another summer. But if we don't have hope, what are we doing? |
“If you don't use an intersectional lens, you are reinforcing the same structures that got us into this mess. If we're not being more critical, more purposeful, more intersectional in this solution phase, then we're not creating anything that's better than the mess that we found ourselves in now.”
Q: What recommendations or advice do you have for young people who are trying to navigate engagement at the intersection of gender equity and climate justice?
A: A lot of people feel like they need to be an expert on the climate crisis to participate. They need to know the data, the stats, the what is a 1.8 versus a 1.9 degree warming scenario look like? How many mega tons of co2? But I think what we can learn from the intersection between gender and climate and all of these intersections is the only thing you need is your own story and your own experience. And its also thinking critically about who is here, who's showing up, who's leading this campaign, whose voices aren't we hearing. I always give the advice that if you want to get involved in climate action, start locally, like what is happening in your community, - its start where you live, because you will feel a greater sense of connection to the work, it's easier to get involved. I think the other thing that I would say is like, there's I think there's misconceptions around the kind of person that is a there is a climate activist that is involved in a climate movement. We need everybody, we need the creatives, the carers, the researchers, the communicators, the artists.
A: A lot of people feel like they need to be an expert on the climate crisis to participate. They need to know the data, the stats, the what is a 1.8 versus a 1.9 degree warming scenario look like? How many mega tons of co2? But I think what we can learn from the intersection between gender and climate and all of these intersections is the only thing you need is your own story and your own experience. And its also thinking critically about who is here, who's showing up, who's leading this campaign, whose voices aren't we hearing. I always give the advice that if you want to get involved in climate action, start locally, like what is happening in your community, - its start where you live, because you will feel a greater sense of connection to the work, it's easier to get involved. I think the other thing that I would say is like, there's I think there's misconceptions around the kind of person that is a there is a climate activist that is involved in a climate movement. We need everybody, we need the creatives, the carers, the researchers, the communicators, the artists.
Bridging the Intersections between Gender Equity and Climate Justice
Bridging the Intersections between Gender Equity and Climate Justice
Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism, a term coined by feminist Françoise d'Eaubonne, highlights the ways both nature and women are treated by patriarchal societies and contends that these norms lead to an incomplete worldview. It advocates for an alternative vision that recognizes humanity's dependence on the natural world, values planetary wellbeing, and embraces all life as valuable (Miles 2018). This requires the deconstruction of binaries that limit and restrict our imagination.
Care Work
Much of the care work that sustains and strengthens our communities — like teaching, childcare, nursing, caregiving, farmwork, food provision and more — are done by women and migrant workers from across the globe (Gunn-Wright and Palladino 2021). Unfortunately, care work is often uncompensated, devalued, and not regarded as true work, even though care workers exist on the frontlines of disasters like the climate crisis. Advancing status, protection and fair pay for these workers is essential.
Gender-Based Violence
Climate-driven extreme weather events disproportionately affect girls, women, and gender-diverse folks by placing them in vulnerable positions without their survival needs, which heighten pre-existing inequities like a lack of human rights, financial insecurity, and low literacy rates (Carney et al., 2020). Additionally, resource extraction projects are linked to an increase in gender-based violence towards Indigenous women and girls due to the presence of man camps (University of Colorado 2020).
Resource Managers
Women's roles as primary providers of food, water and fuel can put them at greater risk of changes in availability and access to natural resources (Kamdar 2015). They are further discriminated against in agri-land rights and natural resource management activities. On average, women around the world have less socioeconomic power than men and are more likely to experience poverty, making it more difficult for them to recover from disasters that disrupt infrastructure, livelihoods, and housing.
Resources