Adenike A. Akinsemolu and Obafemi Alaba Olukoya
Abstract
Values, patriarchal norms, and traditions related to gender and gendering are diverse among societies, communities, and precincts. As such, although climate change is expected to exacerbate vulnerabilities and deepen existing gender inequities and inequalities, the impacts will be unequally felt across geographical strata. This implies that the specificity of the vulnerability of women to climate change may also vary from community to community and society to societies. However, mainstream literature on the vulnerability of women to climate changes in coastal zones trivializes the plurality and nuances of different geographical contexts by universalizing context-specific vulnerability to climate change. Mindful of the limitations associated with the generalizing conception of women’s vulnerability, this paper is therefore underpinned by the implicit assumption that a successful response to the vulnerability of women to climate change in coastal zone is forged in the nexus between contextual investigation of climate change parameters and a localized investigation of differentiation in gender roles, patriarchal norms and other unknown factors in a particular setting. Thus, this paper presents a case study of the contextual vulnerability of women to climate change in Ilaje coastal region in Nigeria. Examining the intersecting complex of contextual factors, the paper establishes that beyond patriarchal traditions and norms: economic, political, educational and environmental factors are at play in the vulnerability of women to climate change in Ilaje community. To this end, this paper posits that to alleviate the vulnerability of women to climate change in coastal zones, the understanding of contextual factors play a fundamental role.
Keywords: Women, Vulnerability, Coastal region, Climate change, Ilaje, Nigeria