5 November 2009
Monash University will host a national forum on women, leadership and climate change on Tuesday 10 November ahead of the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
More than 80 women representing regional and rural areas across Victoria will meet in a call to action for rural women to be better represented in the climate change debate.
Forum convener and head of the Gender, Leadership and Social Sustainability (GLASS) unit at Monash University Professor Margaret Alston said women needed a stronger voice in the climate change debate.
"One of the symptoms of climate change is the drought and in many country areas around Australia the impact of the sustained dry period is really taking its toll on country communities. Often it is the women in these areas who are trying to keep their families together and afloat both emotionally and financially -- it's draining," Professor Alston said.
"Our research indicates that more than half of all farming families now rely on income beyond the farm to keep them going. It's most often the women who are working full-time outside the farming business, while working on the farm doing bookwork or other duties and trying to raise a family. They are finding it tough as the drought drags on.
"They often tell us they've reached the limit of their ability to cope. They're carrying an extraordinary burden -- and there seems to be no end in sight. For many families there's been no farm income for some years and mounting debts. This makes the wages women earn outside the farm critical," Professor Alston said.
Professor Alston said communities were at breaking point. "Some farming families are walking off the land and relocating where there's work and income. They're cutting their losses. Other families are involuntarily separating as one partner leaves in search of work."
"It's the impact of climate change on women's lives that needs discussion -- work, workforce flexibility, child care, aged care, multiple work roles, keeping communities going, lifting the spirits of rural people and communities and giving women a voice in the climate change debate," Professor Alston said.
Rural women have the capacity to be significant agents for change and they want their voices heard at Copenhagen and the forums that follow both at home and abroad. They want proper representation to ensure the differing impacts of climate change on rural women's and men's lives are acknowledged. Our meeting next week will be a positive start," Professor Alston said.
Outcomes from the forum will be presented to the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke.
The forum will hear from guest speakers from various departments and organisations including the Productivity Commission, Murray Darling Basin Authority, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Irrigators.
The forum will be held on Tuesday, 10 November, 2009 between 9.30 am and 4.30 pm at the RACV Club, 501 Bourke Street, Melbourne.
For more information about the forum, to arrange attendance or an interview, contact Samantha Blair, Media and Communications + 61 3 9903 4841 or +61 439 013 951.
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