SEI Research Synthesis: Gender, development and sustainability

SEI’s research on gender focuses on how unequal power relations, formal and informal, affect development opportunities and vulnerability to climate change and other hazards. It also examines the role of institutions in addressing inequalities.

Men and women play different roles and have differing degrees of power in societies, and this affects their access to and control of resources and opportunities, as well as their relative vulnerability. Yet despite extensive research on gender in the context of sustainable development, gender issues are often neglected or poorly addressed in development policy and practice. Many interventions fail to recognize gender differences, while others oversimplify or fall back on stereotypes.

SEI’s work on gender aims to narrow this gap between knowledge and policy and practice, both by exploring specific gender issues, and by explicitly addressing gender differences across a broad range of environment- and development-focused studies.

This research synthesis present key insights from this work, as well as key activities. It also charts a path for new research on gender in multiple contexts: from political ecology, to the “green economy”.

Download the brief (PDF, 1.8MB)