Conceptualising environmental collective action: Why gender matters

Abstract

The study, based on existing case studies and fieldwork research, it analyzes gender differences in social networks, values, and motivations. This paper shows that from a gender perspective, natural resource management institutions are non-participative and inequitable which affect their ability to be efficient and sustainable. Examples of these are; rule reinforcement, inaccurate assessment of resource depletion, information flow, non-involvement of women's specific knowledge of species varieties. When women's social networks and forms of cooperation are neglected, long term sustainable environmental collective action is affected. Women's interdependence facilitates group functions and conflict resolution. The paper also presents the factors that can prevent or facilitate women's participation in formal environmental management groups. Constraints to women's participation are; the rules of membership, social norms, male perception of women's roles and abilities, 'territorial claims', economic and social status, Women and men's attitudes to conservation depends on gender division of economic resources, and gender division of labor.