Hot Off the Press: Women & Climate Edition
Whenever possible, the Towards Equality team selects a few pieces we’ve seen in the press that caught our attention around one specific theme.
Here are three picks in relation to “women and climate,” our focus theme in November 2022, as featured in our newsletter In the Balance.
And if you’re in the mood for something to watch, there’s one extra recommendation at the end.
“The muted voices of women in climate news coverage”
London-based agency AKAS has taken an interest in the (under)representation of women in news coverage related to the climate crisis. The results of the report are not surprising, but it is striking to see actual figures confirm the lack of women’s perspectives when it comes to climate action. This article is a must-read for any journalist. It connects the dots and paints a clear picture of the situation with all the needed data. → Read on IJNET
“An Iraqi Woman and Climate Change”
Daraj is an independent ICIJ-recognized all-digital media platform covering news in Arabic-speaking countries. In this 2019 piece, we meet Halimah al-Sawady, a farmer living in southern Iraq. Working the land, she has had to face temperatures higher than 50°C, and learn to cope and adapt, using whatever resources she has access to. It is a matter of survival. Although seemingly “simple,” this look into Halimah’s daily life lets us in on the serious impact climate change has on women in the region. → Read on Daraj
“A day in the life of a Turkana woman”
In this episode of its “Nation Reports” podcast, Kenyan major news outlet The Daily Nation takes us to Turkana, a county severely hit by droughts (an annual average rainfall of 200mm), caused by a 2 to 3°C rise in temperatures between 1967 and 2012. As we follow the reporter’s journey there, we meet women and girls who have to deal with the climate crisis as part of their everyday, regular “life problems.” And one big issue in particular makes it even harder on them: cultural barriers. → Listen & read on Nation
Plus…
“Women divers of the Atauro Island”
“We, women, started to dive because during this time, there was nothing left to eat. It was very tough. People suffered. So we started to dive to be able to eat.” When the land went dry in the village of Adara, on the Atauro island, women turned to the ocean for survival. To this day, only they go diving, searching for food, providing on a daily basis for their community. A 15-minute documentary by Slice. → Click to watch