Women's Empowerment and Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change: A Case of Chepangs in the Chitwan District of Nepal
Abstract
Women in developing countries have always been adjusting their livelihood against the vagaries of climate. The existing gender inequalities add gravity to the situation. Empowering women can reduce their disproportionate sensitivity to climate change and strengthen the entire family’s adaptive capacity, thereby improving the communities’ adaptive capacity. However, studies linking women, climate change, and adaptive capacity are rare, perpetuating in policies and programs excluding women. The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of the relationship between women’s empowerment and the adaptive capacity of climate change in a Chepang community in Nepal using a quantitative method. Data was collected from surveying 190 randomly chosen households in the Chitwan district of Nepal. Six attributes were used to measure women’s empowerment (economic, socio-cultural, familial/interpersonal, legal, political, psychological,) and five attributes to measure adaptive capacity (asset, innovation, knowledge & information, institutions & entitlements, flexible & forward-thinking decision making. Polychoric Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Factor Analysis for Mixed Data (FAMD) were used to construct the indices for individual determinants. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model was used to estimate the effect of women’s empowerment on adaptive capacity. Results indicate that women's empowerment has a significant positive impact on households' adaptive capacity in the Chepang communities. Political and psychological components of women’s empowerment were particularly important in explaining the adaptive capacity of the households. The economic and legal components were also important but less so than the political and psychological components.
Citation
Khadka, Akriti (2022). Women's Empowerment and Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change: A Case of Chepangs in the Chitwan District of Nepal. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /198611.