Climate change, “technology” and gender: “adapting women” to climate change with cooking stoves and water reservoirs

Abstract

In the countries most affected by climate change, such as Nicaragua, adaptation technologies are promoted with the twofold aim of securing the livelihoods of rural women and men while reducing the climate-related risks they face. Although researchers and practitioners are usually aware that not every “technology” may be beneficial, they do not sufficiently take into account the injustices that these adaptation technologies could (re)produce. Inspired by the works of feminist scholars engaged in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), this article attempts to demonstrate the need to broaden the debate on gender-sensitive climate change adaptation technologies. I argue that, first and foremost, this debate must question the potentially oppressive effects of the climate change narratives that call for technological solutions. Second, I urge feminist researchers and practitioners to denounce the counter-productive effects of adaptation technologies that impede the transformation of the “traditional” gender roles. Based on my ethnographic fieldwork in rural Nicaragua, this article calls for rethinking the role of climate change adaptation technologies in offering possibilities for challenging gender inequalities.