The International Women’s Day 2022 theme, Changing Climates: Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow, recognises and celebrates the contribution of women and girls around the world, who are working to change the climate of gender equality and build a sustainable and prosperous future.
The topics of gender equality and environmental sustainability are interlinked. We know that solving the gender work, pay, and education gap, positively impacts the environment. [1] However, although women are the most affected by natural disasters and conflicts, they are usually ignored when developing solutions.
A report from UNEP from 2016 identified “gender inequality as one of the main challenges to advance the environmental dimension of sustainable development, as it has negative impacts on access, use and control of natural resources, as well as the right to a clean, safe and healthy environment for all. Adopting gender-responsive approaches makes environmental interventions longer-lasting and more transformative, from policies and programming related to the impact of climate change to issues around access to energy, water, sanitation, land and other natural resources”.
It is interesting to note that at the moment, in Australia, a high number of female community-backed independent candidates seeking election into federal politics are leading the way with calls for real climate action, integrity, and gender equality because they know that by getting this right, we can positively affect our future prosperity across communities and societies.
This is consistent with findings from the corporate world: research shows that companies led by women “pollute less, receive less environmental penalties and have a higher awareness of environmental protection”. They also make more money: Companies with more women in executive and board positions also outperform others in their industries. It makes economic sense on every level. When women and girls do better, we all do better.
Decarbonising businesses and sales operations
The urgency to act on both on gender equality and climate action prompted Barrett -a woman-led business- to write our Sales Trends Report for 2022 on Decarbonising Sales Operations. The climate crisis is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced which can seem overwhelming at the best of times. But here’s the opportunity, we have everything we need to solve this crisis now and move into a new phase of human evolution where clean energy and sustainable ways of living and working will be our future. Achieving gender equality is both part of the solution and the opportunities that lay ahead.
If we care about the environment and our future prosperity, we need to care about gender equality.
Our future can’t wait.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
[1] https://drawdown.org/solutions/health-and-education
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