Gendering the Sociology of Climate Change

The threat posed by climate change to the ongoing wellbeing of Earth’s natural systems and the social systems that depend on them has attracted an increasing amount of attention from sociologists. Within the broader area of sociological research on climate change, there has been increasing attention to the gendered dimensions of this global crisis. Much of this scholarly attention has dealt with the gendered distribution of impacts from climate change, particularly how intersectional factors like class and race exacerbate the effects experienced by women and gender queer individuals. However, gender relations not only influence who is impacted by climate change and to what extent, but they also shape the structures of power that contribute to and prevent action on climate change to begin with. In an effort to outline these relations, this session invites contributions that focus on men and masculinities in environmental politics more generally. Examples of topics include: explorations of how gendering power relations can inform possible versus probable futures; the feminization of climate change activists versus the masculinization of fossil fuel related work; intersectional analysis of different masculinities and their relationship with resource extraction; and the influence of gender hierarchies on norms and behaviours which contribute to or prevent action on climate change.