Is Adaptation to Climate Variability Gendered? Evidence from a Developing Country, Ethiopia

Universally, it is agreed that adaptation is largely a social issue (as opposed to purely biophysical or technological). However, it is surprising that gender, one of the social issues is not yet playing a more explicit role in adaptation studies. Hence, in this twenty first century, when we are still experiencing gender inequality, ensuring successful adaptation of all community members to climate variability and change is less likely due to the prevailing gender power differences in terms of having access to key resources and services which has significant contribution for adaptation. This article attempts to uncover the gender difference in having access to resources and its impacts on adaptation to climatic shocks with cross sectional data from 452 households in Ethiopia and time series data on climate variability and agricultural production of the period 1981-2012. Trend analysis and statistical measurements were used to analyze the data. The study found out that there are gendered impacts of climate variability longitudinally and spatially. Moreover, there are differences in adaptation strategies pursued by female and male farmers to overcome climate variability and extremes. Therefore, there is a need for gendered intervention in terms of policies and actions to enhance adaptation and reducing recurring food insecurity.