What is the future? It is not in our hands : Women's realities of living in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh in the context of environmental challenges

Sammanfattning: Bangladesh is known as one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, especially the southwest coastal region. This area frequently experiences extreme weather such as cyclones, storms, waterlogging, droughts, and high levels of salinity. These events are projected to intensify further with climate change. Moreover, scholars have emphasized that women in Bangladesh bear the heaviest burden from environmental challenges in terms of vulnerability, exposure, and adaptation. This study aims to illustrate the reality and everyday life of emotions and thoughts of women living under these kinds of circumstances. To do so, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living in three different villages in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. The purpose investigates how environmental challenges affect women living in this region in terms of health, mobility, livelihood, and social- and economic security. In addition, this study explores how these women look at the future as well as how they live their everyday life in an area affected by environmental challenges. The ambition was not to find comparable answers, rather to illustrate a variety of women’s realities and challenges. The gathered material was analyzed through previous research and the theoretical frameworks of IPCC’s Conception of Risk and Feminist Political Ecology (FPE).     The results show that women are affected in several ways by environmental challenges because of socially constructed gender roles that are governed by patriarchal principles in the society of Bangladesh. These principles further state the positioning of women and that they hold reproductive-, domestic-, and productive roles that further enhance their vulnerability, exposure, as well as ability to cope and adapt to environmental challenges. Moreover, geographical location and poverty are also two key factors that play a crucial part in how women experience environmental challenges and ability to cope and adapt to these.