Source: University of Canterbury
08 March 2022
Women will suffer greater impacts from climate-related disasters globally, yet they are under-represented on international bodies investigating climate change adaptation and mitigation.
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Professor Hayward, a lead author on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and a member of the IPCC gender taskforce, says women will be more impacted by climate change globally, which makes their representation on international panels even more important.
That needs to change, says Professor Bronwyn Hayward, a political scientist at the University of Canterbury (UC) and a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s report released last week.
Hayward was one of the authors of a study the IPCC conducted to investigate its own gender bias. The results were recently published in the journal Nature.
Progress, but still a way to go
When the IPCC was established in 1990, just 8% of its scientists were women, Professor Hayward, who is also a member of the IPCC gender taskforce, says. “Now 30% of IPCC scientists are women or non-binary, with growing numbers of authors drawn from the global south. That is partly due to bringing in new voices – philosophers, lawyers and architects for example – for the latest report on adaptation, vulnerability and impacts, and because more women tend to work in the social sciences than the physical sciences.”
It is essential that women are involved in climate research she says. “The studies indicate that women are disproportionately affected by disasters, as they are often less well insured, they have fewer resources, they have caregiving responsibilities, and as a result they are over-represented in deaths and injuries in all disasters.
“Having voices that are sensitive to the gendered nature of climate impacts is important, but also good science needs diverse thought, diverse life experience and a diverse range of values brought to understand the problems we are looking at, particularly when these are complex, wicked problems with no easy solutions.”
Professor Hayward acknowledged the IPCC’s efforts to improve its culture of inclusivity for women and researchers from developing countries. “We have a huge range of cultures, languages, practices and religions, so personally for me that has been a really enriching part of the process. It has been interesting to watch physical and social scientists reflecting about what are accepted as appropriate ways to behave. It’s good professional practice.”
The barriers women face
Barriers remain, however. The IPCC meetings are online, with the most recent government hearings based in Germany, so members in the global south had to negotiate European time zones. Women scientists often have caregiving responsibilities and must juggle looking after children or elderly relatives alongside the demanding IPCC process.
For two weeks before the report is released, authors of a summary document defend the key findings against challenges from government science teams.
“I’ve been working from about 10.30 at night to 7.30 or 8am,” Professor Hayward says. “It’s quite hard because you have to defend your team’s research under intense scrutiny at 2 o’clock in the morning – it was a level of stress and anxiety I hadn’t experienced before.”
Participation is worth it though. The Nature paper shows the IPCC is particularly important for women’s careers. “You are put into quite challenging situations where you are presenting to governments and debating across scientific bodies of knowledge, and it is particularly significant for networking and building the capacity of women’s leadership.”
Getting a foot in the door
Professor Hayward was first nominated for the IPCC in 2016 while on special leave from UC, working with a University of Surrey research team and a climate team from the University of East Anglia in the UK. A dual British-New Zealand resident, she made a courtesy call to the New Zealand Government. “Their initial response was, ‘We already have our men thanks’. That was awkward because I had actually been nominated by France, so I was just really advising them, not asking for permission’.” She says the Nature paper shows this tendency to call upon well-established scientists exists in every country and is a barrier to encouraging new voices.
She began as a lead author on the sustainability chapter of the 1.5 report, published in 2018, a report she thinks changed perceptions about the urgency of climate change.
“I think everyone felt quite proud when it was finished, that it has changed public understanding of climate change and certainly governments and ministers for the environment have said the report really underscored how serious the issues were.”
Subsequently invited to be a coordinating lead author on Chapter 6: Cities and Infrastructure of the IPCC’s second instalment of its current Sixth Assessment cycle, Professor Hayward was also appointed to the core writing team for the synthesis report, a summary of the last six years of research.
Key findings – and hope for the future
Key findings are that we are rapidly running out of time to adapt to our changing climate and that 3.6 billion people will be particularly vulnerable to climate change – they are women, children, disabled people and the marginalised including those in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and small island nations.
“I think writing climate reports as a whole can be quite a grim experience because you are documenting human suffering and risk, but what is unusual about the process is you are working with hundreds of colleagues who also care deeply about these issues,” Professor Hayward says. “That is a very empowering thing to know, that around the world there are hundreds and thousands of people working on the issues.”
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