Free-choice learning suited to women’s participation needs in environmental decision-making processes

Abstract

United Nations mandates recognize the need to promote the full participation of women in environmental decision-making processes on the basis of gender equality. But, there remains a profound lack of effective women’s participation in some sectors of environmental decision-making. Free-choice environmental learning offers an effective educational process for encouraging and developing such participation. This study outlines the shifts in and possibilities for women in environmental decision-making processes in and beyond Western and Northern contexts, and proposes free-choice learning as a pathway to furthering women’s participation.

Keywords:

• free-choice learning
• citizen participation
• women
• environmental education

Notes

1. For example, the theme for 2011 is ‘Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women’.