Consequences of Changes in Gender Roles for Environmental Consciousness and Behavior

Women drive less, eat healthier and use less energy. Moreover, women much more often assume responsibility for the management of daily life within the family. As a result, they are more often affected by environmental problems and policy measures. At the same time, women have fewer financial resources than men, which is a reason for their more frugal use of environmental resources. In short: “Environmental problems are not gender neutral.”

But to what degree do these facts lead to gender specific strategies for action in environmental policy? So far environmental policy has been lacking strategies that support both sustainability and more gender justice.

In 2000 ISOE was awarded a contract from the Federal Environmental Agency to produce a study entitled “Consequences of Changes in Gender Roles for Environmental Consciousness and Behavior.” The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between gender and environmental consciousness and behavior, and to derive from the empirical data strategies for communication concerning the environment. The opinion survey “Environmental Consciousness in Germany 2000,” which is carried out on a regular basis under contract for the Federal Environmental Agency, and ISOE’s own “Study of Consumption Styles” were reanalyzed in terms of gender for this study .

What the study showed was that the presence of children under six in the household had a significant effect on the environmental consciousness and behavior of both sexes. Environmentally aware behavior with respect to nourishment is particularly pronounced. Fathers of small children are in general even more environmentally aware than women.

In addition it was seen that, in households where the family is viewed as a partnership and men take part in housework and child care, it is the case that men display a clear environmental and health orientation. Women, however, play a decisive role in overall household management even in these households. Men function more as “implementers of wishes.” All of the foregoing is particularly true of certain types of consumption – for the “well organized eco-family,” for example, or for “everyday life artists.”

Gender specific differences are also strongly evident with respect to nourishment issues, even among consumer categories where a leveling between the sexes is apparent. This is particularly evident among the consumer category “childless and career oriented,” where men and women have very similar mobility behavior. While health plays only a limited role for men within category, for women it is a overriding factor in their orientation.

From the perspective of gender justice, communication measures leading to a more acute environmental consciousness can lead, in the case of women, to an increase in their daily burden and stress and to structural discrimination. It must be recognized therefore that communication measures aimed at raising environmental consciousness can also lead to an even greater feminization of responsibility for the environment. The study showed, however, that a more direct appeal to men to assume more responsibility for the organization of everyday life has the promise of having a positive effect on the environment.

Analysis of the Consequences of the Change in Gender Roles on Environmental Consciousness and Behavior

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Consequences of Changes in Gender Roles for Environmental Consciousness and Behavior