Sustainability and Rural Women in the UK

Research announced by my university this week had some good and bad news - whilst they say that high carbon emissions are not a requirement of high life expectancy (citing Costa Rica and other nations), low carbon emissions pretty much always correlate with poor life expectancy etc.

The sustainability issue is the focus of the Rio+20 summit later this year, but I can't help but think it will be raised at the CSW as I see it as intricately tied to the livelihoods of rural women in all countries. Whilst my previous post touched on how the environment is key to women in African nations, environmental issues are definitely important for rural women in the UK to.

In a time of funding cuts, it's difficult for a rural woman in the UK to prioritise sustainable transportation methods as bus services are reduced. Less buses (and more expensive tickets) not only impacts on carbon emissions, but also on the employment and social opportunities of rural women. The council in the above example say they targetted evening and weekend services - clearly with the premise of the working week running 9-5 Monday to Friday - but women in the UK are more likely to be part-time employment which often requires working outside of the usual 9-5. Women are also more likely to be in insecure work (and make up a greater proportion of those claiming job-seekers allowance) with the gap between women and men growing since 2008.

These statitics are reiterated for rural women across europe and this same report highlights the importance of women in the process of sustainable development. The male dominated rural networks can exclude women from decision making processes simply by being places that they don't want to be. Rural women need to be given a voice for sustainable development in their communities.