The overrepresentation of women in the world’s poor is exacerbated by the same economic system which has rapidly destroyed the environment and is responsible for the ongoing climate catastrophe that the world is facing right now. The ongoing climate catastrophe, extreme inequality, and gender inequality are inextricably linked on the global, national, local, and household level. The top economies in the world based on gross domestic product (GDP), which include the U.S., China, and the U.K., and the wealthiest individuals in the world whose investments and activities act as the highest producers of carbon emissions, are the highest beneficiaries of activities and profit that have historically contributed to exacerbating the climate crisis. On the flipside, women and children from least developed countries in Asia whose contributions to the worsening climate crisis are insignificant compared with the billionaires of the world suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change.
As it continues to deepen pre-existing inequalities for vulnerable and marginalized communities all over Asia, the climate crisis requires just and sustainable solutions. By way of financing, it is high time that governments and development organizations look to the unearned and unregulated wealth of billionaires whose fortune largely rests on the generation of fossil fuels.
The current tax system which has led to systemic poverty and inequality for women and the neoliberal economic system which is among the main culprits of the climate catastrophe that the world is facing are unjust and have only succeeded in serving the interest of the wealthy elite. Addressing these dire issues necessitates the development of a mechanism where the rich are made to pay their fair share of taxes. Establishing a wealth tax offers one just solution to the work towards funding climate-related initiatives which can remove the reliance on indirect taxes which have a disproportionate impact on poor and marginalized communities.
Climate and Gender
Women have been found to be 14 times more likely to die during natural disasters, because of the following reasons:
- socio-cultural and economic constraints on women’s mobility
- unequal lack of access to knowledge and education on how to save themselves
- women’s household obligations
- economic inequality
Women also suffer from long-term effects of climate-related disasters, a report by the UN Women underscored these effects in their report:
- 232 million more women and girls may experience food insecurity at 158 million may be pushed into poverty by 2050 due to climate change
- Migration due to climate-related disasters will increase which disproportionately affect women and girls who represent 80% of people displaced by climate change
- Women also face increased maternal and reproductive health problems due to air pollution and heat exposure.
The progress on the struggle against gender-based violence being are also severely hampered after a natural calamity has struck.
- instances of gender-based violence, prostitution, unwanted pregnancies, and child marriage increase in communities or areas that have been hit by natural disasters
- instances of GBV after a disaster are likely to increase due to an “increase in stressors that trigger violence against women and children, an increase in enabling environments, and an exacerbation of underlying drivers of VAWC”
The effects of climate change are not always as immediate or evident. Some are more insidious and have been unfolding for many years, though the effects are just as fatal.
- In INDIA, increasing heat waves and droughts have been adding to the suffering of women in rural communities. Women who work in tea plantations in West Bengal have suffered from vision loss, skin infections, and other ailments due to a shift in their production needs due to “climate and ecological deterioration”. Women have also had to walk longer distances to find water due to droughts.
- In BANGLADESH, water salinity in agricultural land and bodies of freshwater as a result of climate-related hazards such as cyclones and increasing sea level have disproportionately affected the health and work of women as they use water more often than men for their responsibilities in the household. Women in areas affected by water salinity were found to have suffered from dysentery, diarrhea, and skin rashes which have adversely affected both their health and social status:
- “Women being the victims of skin diseases face problems like social exclusion, social denial, mental stress, and negligence by family members. They are ignored in their marital life and have lower value in the husband’s family.”
- Water salinity has also affected women’s menstruation cycles and have been found to contribute to higher rates of miscarriages.
- In INDONESIA, the fatality rate during the 2004 Aceh Tsunami was higher for women than for men. Four times as many women died than men due to several factors. A study which surveyed the living children of the women who died during the Tsunami found that the reason for the high fatality rate among women were because;
- “they waited for their husbands to return–in an effort to obey and honor their husbands; that they put the safety of their other family members first, before their own; that they were likely to pray than leave, and that they were often more vulnerable and less aware of how to protect themselves”
Make Taxes Work for Women! Wealth Tax for Climate and Gender Justice!
Wealth inequality is gender inequality. Tax and fiscal systems which prioritize indirect taxes have denied women of their right to access resources and wealth, resulting in the feminisation of poverty. Such a system supports patriarchal structures which encourages the unregulated accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few elite individuals. Women carry a disproportionate burden of unjust tax systems as well as the climate crisis that the world is facing today. The imposition of wealth taxes can tip the scales of justice and provide women, girls, people, and governments of the world with enough resources to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis and end poverty for billions of people all over the world.
The unequal status of women in society places them at an economic, social, cultural, and political disadvantage which affects their opportunities to access education, decent employment, and decision-making roles within their communities. This also affects their ability to protect themselves in times of serious and natural disasters.
Establishing a wealth tax can pave the way to mobilizing domestic resources to include more women in climate-related initiatives; to gather necessary, gender-disaggregated data; and, to ensure that climate-related policies and initiatives also consider the needs of women, children, and other marginalized communities.
There can be no gender justice without tax justice! There can be no gender justice without climate justice! Justice for women all over the world cannot be realized without proper systems which ensure their right to access wealth and resources. Climate justice, tax justice, and fiscal justice are all essential in the struggle for gender justice and women’s rights.
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