Why Women Will Save the Planet

For more than forty years Friends of the Earth has seen that the well-being of people and planet go hand in hand – and it’s been the inspiration for our campaigns. Together with thousands of people like you we’ve secured safer food and water, defended wildlife and natural habitats, championed the move to clean energy and acted to keep our climate stable. This book forms part of our three-year research project Big Ideas Change the World, which aims to inspire a new campaigning journey for Friends of the Earth and others. It is collaboratively researching ten topics, including the future of cities, innovation, women’s empowerment and the history of change. It starts from the premise that humans are ingenious and have enormous capacity for collaboration and empathy, even though right now we are doing some pretty stupid things. Big Ideas Change the World will identify what needs to change to focus some of humanity’s amazing abilities on solving the challenges we face and building a brighter future for everyone. Find out more and get involved at www.foe.co.uk/bigideas

Jenny Hawley - Introduction
1. Diane Elson, University of Essex - Women's empowerment and environmental sustainability in the context of international UN agreements
2. Wanjira Maathai, Green Belt Movement, Kenya - Women as drivers of forest restoration to combat climate change
3. Lyla Mehta and Melissa Leach, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex - Why do gender equality and sustainability go hand in hand?
4. Caroline Lucas, UK Green Party MP - Is there a speci?c role for women in helping to achieve environmental sustainability through politics?
5. Susan Buckingham, Feminist geographer, Brunel University - The institutionalisation and masculinisation of environmental knowledge
6. Yvonne Orengo, Andrew Lees Trust - Media empowering women in southern Madagascar
7. Julie A. Nelson, Economist, University of Massachusetts Boston - Empowering a balanced and useful economics of sustainability: the role of gender
8. Anna Fitzpatrick, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London - The role of fashion in bringing about social and ecological change
9. Celia Alldridge, Activist with the World March of Women - How the defence of the commons and territories has become a core part of feminist, anti-capitalist struggles
10. Vandana Shiva, Philosopher, activist and co-author of Ecofeminism - Hand in hand: women's empowerment and sustainability
11. Quinn Bernier, Chiara Kovarik, Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Agnes Quisumbing, International Food Policy Research Institute - Women's empowerment in sustainable agriculture
12. Isabel Bottoms and Amena Sharaf, Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights - The impacts of environmental mismanagement on Egypt's poor
13. Nathalie Holvoet and Liesbeth Inberg, University of Antwerp - How gender-sensitive are National Adaptation Programmes of Action? Selected ?ndings from a desk review of thirty-one sub-Saharan African countries
14. Shukri Haji Ismail Bandare and Fatima Jibrell, NGO leaders - Women, con?ict and the environment in Somali society
15. Esther Mwangi, Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) - Gender, participation and community forestry: lessons from beneath the canopy
16. Barbara Stocking, Former CEO of Oxfam GB - Putting gender equality at the heart of Oxfam's work
17. Nidhi Tandon, Networked Intelligence for Development, Canada - From individual to communal rights: empowering women for sustainable use of natural resources
18. Maria Mies, Sociologist, activist and co-author of Ecofeminism - Mother Earth
19. Sarah Fisher, Population and Sustainability Network - Sexual and reproductive health and rights: a win-win for women and sustainability
20. Kate Metcalf and colleagues, UK Women's Environmental Network - The power of grassroots action for women's empowerment and the environment
21. Marylyn Haines Evans, National Federation of Women's Institutes - One hundred years of collective action for environmental change
22. Juliet Davenport, CEO of Good Energy - The impact of gender balance in the renewable energy sector
23. Emma Howard Boyd, 30% Club for women in business leadership - More women in business for a sustainable economy
24. Fiona Reynolds, Former director general of the National Trust - Sustainability is about people
25. Cathy Newman, Journalist and TV presenter for Channel 4 News, UK - Sexism and gender equality in British politics
26. Sarah Richardson, Historian, University of Warwick - Mistresses of their own destiny: a history of women's empowerment in nineteenth-century British politics