katamari Damassi wrote:
This reminds me of a photo in a magazine i saw many years ago. It was the height of the AIDS epidemic and there were many protest marches and demonstrations against the lack of awareness and action by the powers that were. The photo was of a butch looking woman holding up a sign that said: "AIDS, Women Die First". This was back when at least 75% of AIDS victims in the US were gay men. I was also never able to find out if there was any truth to that statement. It really pissed me off.
Of course back then I hadn't heard of Mykeru's rule.
I suspect the vapid-looking lass' assertion is based on something like this (given that I can't figure out any other way as to how women in particular can be more affected by climate change):
The rising temperatures and changes in weather patterns are significantly affecting people living in countries that are so much dependent on the climate for their survival. Poor people in Africa engaged in subsistence agriculture are most vulnerable to climate change. Over 80% of labour in the agricultural sector in Africa is provided by women. If the rains fail, their capacity to provide for themselves and their families is substantially reduced.
http://femnet.co/index.php/en/introduct ... ate-change
Aside from the fact that both men and women are going to be affected by drought, I was curious about the 80% figure. Annoyingly enough, no citation was provided, despite the fact that FEMNET appears fairly legit - if its list of donors is anything to go by. However, after an admittedly quick Google, I found what the UN FAO has to offer on the matter. Complete with sources:
On average, women comprise 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries; this figure ranges from around 20 percent in Latin America to 50 percent in parts of Africa and Asia, and exceeds 60 percent in a few countries.1 In most developing country regions, women who are employed are just as likely, or even more likely, than men to be in agriculture. Almost 70 percent of employed women in Southern Asia and more than 60 percent of employed women in sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture.
http://www.fao.org/sofa/gender/did-you-know/en/
Oh. Not quite the categorical 'over 80%' then. In all, 43% on a worldwide average - and if we take the thesis that climate change has more of an impact on communities within developing countries, then women worldwide will be slightly less affected than men. More evidence, if it were needed, that Teh Patriarchy hurts men too.
Just one caveat, from the same site:
Some researchers note that agricultural labour-force statistics may actually underestimate the amount of work that women do: women are less likely than men to define their activities as work, they are less likely to report themselves as being engaged in agriculture and they work, on average, longer hours than men. So even if fewer women are involved they may contribute more total time to the sector.
So the jury's still out on that one, to an extent. In any case, the FEMNET figure can be treated as suspect, given the lack of sources for it.
