As an Undergraduate teacher in the Social Sciences, you can use this lesson plan to teach your students about the gender dimensions in the field of climate change.
Climate change is a defining factor of human development in recent times. It is not only a topic for scientific or technical discourse but important for its influence on social, economic, and political conditions with wide reaching effects on social justice and gender equality. Power structures, cultural and social constructs have been responsible for the gender norm- rights, roles, capacities, preferences-across the world and, often climate change impacts women more than it does men. A range of different factors such as age, ethnicity, and class define the nature of these differences. The discrepancy also exists in the participation of women in climate policy and action.
This lesson plan provides teaching resources to introduce gender, sex, and sexuality studies to your students. It focuses on understanding the gender dimensions of climate change in terms of its impacts, representation, and participation. The lesson plan includes resources for your students to better understand climate change and gender in agriculture, biodiversity, consumption, disasters, heath, waste, water, and migration amongst others.
Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to teach aspects of Gender Studies in your Social Sciences classroom. This lesson plan can be used as a module in a Gender Studies course or it can be used in the Gender section of an Introduction to Sociology course.
Questions
Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
How does climate change impact women?
Why do women face limitations in participation in climate policy and responses?
What are the gender dimensions of climate change and its impacts on
Agriculture
Biodiversity
Consumption
Disasters
Energy
Forests
Health
Migration
Population
Tourism
Transport
Waste
Water
About Lesson Plan
Grade Level
High school
Discipline
Social Sciences
Topic(s) in Discipline
Gender, Women’s Studies, Justice
Human Rights, Women’s Rights
Climate Topic
Climate and Society
Policies, Politics, and Environmental Governance
Location
Global
Language(s)
English
Access
Online
Approximate Time Required
60 – 120 min
Contents
Reading
(10-30 min)
A reading to introduce Gender, Sex and Sexuality studies from OpenStax books. This chapter is part of the ‘Introduction to Sociology 2e” open access textbook.
Video
(18 min)
A video to introduce gender and climate change by Prof Petra Tschakert, Pennsylvania State University.
Readings
(30 -60 min)
A set of readings from GenderCC - Women for Climate Justice website that present gender dimensions of climate change in several sectors such as agriculture, biodiversity, consumption, disasters, heath, waste, water, and migration, amongst others.
Step-by-Step User Guide
Learning Outcomes
Questions/Assignments
Additional Resources
Credits
1
Introduction to Gender Studies
Introduce your students to the lesson plan by providing an overview of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality studies. You may proceed with your own lecture material or can provide your students with an introductory reading from OpenStax books. This open-access textbook titled ‘Introduction to Sociology 2e’ provides an excellent introduction to different topics in Sociology including Gender Studies. The book has been authored by several university faculty and includes instructor and student resources.
The section on Gender, Sex, and Sexuality can be accessed here.
Different aspects of the field are covered in this resource and include difference between sex and gender, gender identity, homophobia and heterosexism in society, transgender, transsexual, and homosexual identities, socialization on gender roles, stratification of gender in institutions, gender from the view of each sociological perspective, different attitudes associated with sex and sexuality, sexual inequality in various societies, theoretical perspectives on sex and sexuality, amongst others.
2
Introduction to Climate Change and Gender
Next, introduce the topic of gender and climate change by using a video by Prof Petra Tschakert, Pennsylvania State University.
In this video Prof Tschakert discusses the importance of gender and other dimensions of identity and inequality in the context of climate
change. Emphasize to your students, her remarks on how women are
differentially or more severely impacted by climate change but also how it is problematic that women are often portrayed as helpless, as victims of climate change with little knowledge and often no voice or agency.
3
Gender and Climate Change in different sectors
Next, discuss with your students the gender dimensions of climate change in different sectors using the GenderCC - Women for Climate Justice website. This resource can be found here.
It includes the following sections, each of which contains an overview of climate change and gender dimensions of the sector and links to case studies, guidebooks, and reports.
You may choose to discuss the gender dimensions of climate change through a group discussion activity and by assigning sectors to different groups of students. Finally, you may ask students to summarize the gender dimensions of climate change in terms of its impacts, representation, and participation.
The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:
learn about climate change and gender
understand gender and other dimensions of identity and inequality in the context of climate
change
understand and discuss gender, climate change and its impacts on agriculture, biodiversity, consumption, disasters, heath, waste, water, and migration.
Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation :
How does climate change impact women?
Why do women face limitations in participation in climate policy and responses?
What are the gender dimensions of climate change and its impacts on
A set of resources by BRIDGE, a specialized gender and development research and information service based in the Gender and Sexuality Cluster at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK
A climate policy toolkit by GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice is a global network of organisations, experts and activists working for gender equality, women's rights, and climate justice
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