‘Less able’: how gendered subjectivities warp climate change adaptation in Ghana's Central Region

Abstract

Vulnerabilities to climate change and adaptive action vary based on social differences that are bound up in complex power dynamics in any given place, culture, or context. Scholarly interest has shifted from gendered dynamics of climate change adaptation to the socio-political drivers of gendered inequalities that produce discriminatory opportunities for adaptation. This study utilises an intersectional subjectivities lens to examine how entrenched power dynamics and social norms related to gender, as well as age and marital status, galvanise or inhibit capacities to adapt in farming communities of Ghana’s Central Region. Through the use of interviews, focus group discussions, and photovoice sessions, we highlight gendered and intersectional subjectivities, roles, and responsibilities that centre on perceived differences in men’s and women’s strength and power. We then link resulting normative performances of gender to specific barriers to adaptation, such as lack of resources and agency, and demonstrate a pronounced dichotomy as women experience the brunt of these barriers and a persistent power imbalance that positions them as ‘less able’ to adapt than men. Such nuanced assessments of intersectional subjectivities are instrumental in supporting marginalised groups when deliberating and renegotiating inequitable power relations in climate change adaptation. Through repeated efforts at power subversion, emboldened social actors and critical scholars attuned to navigating power differentials can strengthen adaptive capacities and facilitate trajectories toward transformation.

Keywords:

• Agriculture
• gendered inequalities
• power
• (re)negotiation
• subjectivities
• transformational adaptation

Acknowledgements

Firstly, we would like to express warm thanks to Associate Professor Fay Rola-Rubzen and Emeritus Professor Lynette Abbott at The University of Western Australia (UWA) for their ongoing support and expertise as Alicea Garcia’s (first author) PhD co-supervisors, and for their valuable suggestions and feedback on this manuscript. We would also like to express profound thanks to our colleagues and collaborators in Ghana. Particularly, we would like to thank Dr William Boateng, Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), for his endless advice, support, and assistance in establishing meaningful and productive research relationships. Importantly, we must also thank the many rural crop farmers and residents of Ghana’s Central Region who generously offered their time and efforts to the project, both through participation and assisting the research team in organising activities and carrying them out effectively and thoughtfully.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship and The University of Western Australia.

Notes on contributors

Alicea Garcia

Alicea Garcia is a PhD Candidate with the Department of Geography and Planning at The University of Western Australia and holds a First Class Honours Degree in Environmental Policy and Management (focus on responding to gendered inequalities in international agricultural research). Her current research examines how gendered inequalities and related processes of power affect the adaptive capacities of rural farmers in Ghana’s Central Region and investigates opportunities for renegotiating inequitable power structures and social norms. Alicea has collaborated with universities in Ghana to facilitate a gender-inclusive educational program on climate change processes and adaptation planning in rural farming communities and aims to continue building research relationships in Ghana and Africa more broadly. Currently, Alicea is a Postgraduate Fellow with the Africa Research and Engagement Centre (AfREC) at UWA, and a research node for the Political Ecology Network (POLLEN).

Petra Tschakert

Petra Tschakert is the Centenary Professor in Rural Development at The University of Western Australia. She is trained as a human-environment geographer and conducts research at the intersections of political ecology, climate change adaptation, livelihood security, and climate justice. Her current work explores intangible losses in the context of climate change as well as structural drivers of poverty, vulnerability, and inequality. She combines critical social science insights with grounded, participatory methods for collective learning and social change. Professor Tschakert has extensive experience working with rural populations in West Africa, mainly Ghana and Senegal, and has led additional research projects in Tanzania, India, Nepal, and Panama. She was Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) on Chapter 5, Sustainable Development, Poverty Eradication and Reducing Inequalities and drafting author of the Summary for Policy Makers on the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. Prior to that, she was CLA on Chapter 13, Livelihoods and Poverty, of the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC, Working Group II, and also part of the Summary for Policy Makers, WGII, and the Synthesis Report (2014). Her work has been published in leading academic journals including Nature, Global Environmental Change, Emotion, Space & Society, and Climate & Development.

Nana Afia Karikari

Nana Afia Karikari holds a Master of Philosophy Degree in Sociology from the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana, and was adjudged the best graduating student in sociology at the undergraduate level in 2014 at the same University. Nana's research interests and expertise are in medical sociology, gender and sexuality, social policy, and qualitative research methodologies. Specifically, she is interested in women’s health, sociocultural interpretations of chronic and terminal diseases, gender-based violence, and unemployment among Ghanaian youth. Aside her own research outputs, Nana was involved in a collaborative research project between UCC and the University of Sheffield which examined sexual identity acquisition and violence among children and young people in Ghana. Currently, she is working on another collaborative project between UCC and Carleton University, exploring issues of identity and belongingness among mixed race Ghanaians. ‘Exploring the Sociocultural Interpretations of Breast Cancer among Patients at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Ghana’, and ‘Exploring the Coping Strategies of Patients at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Ghana’ are some of her publications.