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The Role of Gender in Energy Development for Sustainable Communities

Example of Sustainable community

Overview of Energy and Gender

Energy can be defined as vigorous exertion of power. It can be also defined as a fundamental entity of nature that is transferred between parts of a system in the production of physical change within the system and usually regarded as the capacity for doing work. Energy today is crucial for household, industrial, commercial and agricultural activities, and the energy sector is the backbone of economic, social, and environmental development of a country. Countries become poor because of lack of energy. Around the world, one person in seven doesn’t have access (to energy or it can be said that 1.11 billion population on the planet don’t have access to energy). It has created inequality in energy distribution around the world.

Energy is greatly associated with the economic and social development. In some countries, electricity price is much higher compared to the developed countries, and countries could not afford electricity for all citizens.while talking energy is directly related to gender.Gender denotes both male and female, because of both partners have important role in energy development. But the most of poor and developing countries, the case appears differently. Due to lack of access of electricity, especially women and children suffer from this situation. For example, many women have to prepare food for family in the dark using wood and coal. Similarly, children have difficulty on study in absence of electricity. For instance, children have to drop out of school and very few of them are able to continue. Additionally, they may suffer from the health problems like eye infection and chest disease due to carbon emission of kerosene candle used for studying and cooking.

The Role of Gender in Energy Development for Sustainable Communities

Energy plays a vital role in the economic growth and development of a country with lack of access to a continuous supply of energy contributing to poverty and deprivation. The energy consumption pattern is directly related to the standard of living and socio-economic status of a neighborhood. Energy and community are closely connected to each other with combined impacts on the economic development of the country.  Gender is a key factor in the management of household energy in both urban and rural areas. Although there have been several studies on energy consumption patterns in villages, they have not focused on the involvement of women in energy efficient technology to build a sustainable community. In fact, women have a strong role in every part of the energy sector as they are involved in cooking, washing, and cleaning activities, which consumes extensive energy. Gender-based differences are very common among all ethnic groups, but the degree of disparity varies based on socio-economic and living conditions. In the Nepalese context, there are more than forty ethnicity living together and following traditional cultural beliefs in their own territories.

Kathmandu Heritage community

Context of Nepal

In Kathmandu, more than 80% of people living in the urban core are from Newar ethnicity. Both rural and urban areas, energy needs at the household level are directly related to women’s workloads and their time. Despite their key role in energy use, women rarely participate in energy policy development. Since women and men use energy differently at home and the work place.

Evans study investigated that women have different roles in society as sandwiched between the older and more modern generation. This study found that women have to balance different roles of mother, parental career and work. In the most of cases, women have to neglect precious opportunities due to their family responsibility. Consequently, women need to be acknowledged and gender-sensitive strategies for their participation in efficient technology use must be devised.

Mahat (2011) stated that gendered access to and control over energy resources and technology have been important issues in Nepal. Although women are demonstrably good managers, having the capability to use energy consciously and effectively, only men were trained in energy technologies. Her study found that men rarely supported women in the participation of policy development meetings and workshops, although they were educated.  On the other hand, urban women have social capital, despite they are being politically and psychologically excluded from taking part in energy technology. Additionally, women are poorly represented in the global sectors like construction and renewable energy. Women have less access to opportunities for new technology in the world. Additionally, this thought was enforced by,Balakrisbnan, science and technology should be interrelated in the development of energy sector to uplift the quality of life of women (1996). However, women account for nine percent of the global workforce. Further, energy institutions are tended to be male-dominated, particularly in the professional posts; as a result, the issues identified and the solutions offered often have a male bias. While there is general agreement that women should be included on the policy development, there is no clear guidelines on how to include women in this role. Although gender norms make attendance and active participation particularly challenging for women in urban community structures and their voices remains unseen. Despite multiple gender equality issues raised in the forum, there has not been an increase in women’s inclusion.

Home Solar

Initiatives in Gender

Few of the cases have highlighted women is participating in programs. Those women are not really encouraged to move forward, instead they are trapped by the situation. Baruah emphasized the situation of poor women, who are interested in the energy sector because they want to upgrade the economic conditions. Some energy organizations can help to provide new livelihood opportunities and optimize earning potential (2015). If organization and policy encourage them, it could be a good connection of green technologies and finance opportunities. McDade stated that energy policy has a multidimensional matrix including gender issues and social and economic aspects since, availability, affordability and safety of energy services is central to sustainable human development. Supporting this view, it found that Nampinga also highlighted the interlinkage between energy and other developmental priorities to be considered as service oriented service (2008). It should be focused on the networking as multidisciplinary level, and laws and legal instruments should not hamper the women’s empowerment (Makhabane, 2002). As a result, the gender disparity could be minimized if the opportunities are provided with a balance between engendering and democratizing which can result in better energy services. Energy is an essential part of development and demands a shift in the mindset of energy planning a quality life style.  Since, women are equal partners in family and community and share an equal workload. Therefore, it is important to highlight gender sensitive policies. 

 Conclusion

Although considerable research has focused by energy use in rural women, rather less attention has been paid to urban women and their role in energy efficient technology. the depth study is needed to analyze the connection between gender and energy to create sustainable communities increasing women participation on urban development. Futher,it is essential to understand that how women can contribute to energy policy development and how they can be empowered socially, economically, and politically in the energy technology.