Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This paper examines the collaborative and conflicting interactions between formal and informal gendered institutions and their configuration of women’s adaptive decisions. It interrogates adaptation decisions with respect to coping strategies, implementation modalities and adaptation intensity.

Paper long abstract

Women farmers make adaptation decisions within complex gendered institutional contexts consisting of formal and informal structures. Formal institutions such as laws, regulations, policies and informal systems of norms, customs, and social expectations impact women’s climate response. The gendered effect of institutions on climate adaptation is acknowledged in previous scholarship however, the ways in which formal and informal gendered institutions interact and configure women’s adaptive choices remain insufficiently explored. This paper examines the collaborative and conflicting interactions between formal and informal gendered institutions and their configuration of women’s adaptation decisions. Fieldwork was undertaken in Uganda, using qualitative participatory methods to generate study results. Helmke and Levitsky’s (2004) categorisation of formal and informal institutional interactions – complementary, accommodation, competition and substitution – was adopted to guide the analysis of gendered institutional interactions. Results demonstrate that constraints to women’s climate adaptation – disparities in resource access and control, responsibilities and decision-making power – are systemically reinforced and reproduced through competition and accommodation interactions. Resultantly, women’s adaptation options have been narrowed and confined to traditional strategies which are often inappropriately implemented and with limited intensity. These limitations undermine the effectiveness of the traditional adaptation strategies in moderating climate risks. The paper advances a systemic approach to understanding the constraints that women confront in climate adaptation. This expands analysis beyond individual-level vulnerabilities and reveals broader socio-political systems that shape adaptive capacities. It further deepens theorisation on gendered adaptation to incorporate multi-scalar power structures and their effect on gender equity in climate adaptation.