Rural Women’s Rise is the Rotten System’s Downfall
- Media Communications
- Oct 14
- 3 min read
As floods in the Philippines wash away homes, agricultural land, and water sources, and force families into displacement, the social consequences of the climate crisis are exposed to their full extent. Most vulnerable to these consequences—both social and economic—are women. This International Rural Women’s Day, the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) stands with women in rural areas as they fight on the frontlines of the battle against the climate crisis and the unjust, unequal system that disfavors women and fuels and exacerbates this crisis.
The climate crisis, fueled by neoliberal agricultural policies, the proliferation of corrupt systems in the government, and programs that curtail the survivability and sustainability of our land and water, exacts a disproportionate toll on women as the primary household members typically in charge of maintaining the homestead and providing nourishment and sustenance for the family. In the Philippines, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, and farmers are the sectors living below the poverty threshold. Meanwhile, women and youth are the specific groups most often from poor families.
When the climate crisis manifests in storms and droughts that endanger our food supply, nourishment, and food availability are at great risk. Adding to this risk is the fact that women, as primary caregivers, have less access to the resources they and their families need. UN Women recognized how climate crisis-affected areas worsen inequalities and put hindrances and restrictions on women’s access to resources. Moreover, they reported that women are less likely to survive hazards intensified by the climate crisis, including severe weather events and drastic climate changes, which worsen existing humanitarian problems such as famine and drought.
Reports show that women in many parts of the world eat last and receive a smaller share of food than men. A US World Food Program report also stated that 60% of the world’s chronically hungry are women and girls. This is despite a finding that a staggering 80% of the food produced in developing countries is from women.
In economically disadvantaged areas, such as provinces in the Philippines, one can easily imagine this situation because it is a stereotype well-known and well-documented in our media and our stories. Despite this normalized inequality and injustice that women have been forced to endure for decades, the fight for change and transition to a just system that favors equality and justice rages with our struggle for climate justice.
The problems of the climate crisis, the continued livability of the planet, and the pursuit of equality and justice for the people are interconnected issues that we must address with utmost urgency. The crisis in our climate is the existential problem of our lifetime, and only through changing the same economic and social system that enables this crisis and the systemic inequality against women and other vulnerable sectors can we truly save our planet and our people.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization and the big global financial institutions: the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This means nearly a century of exploitation, deepening inequality, the depletion of the commons, human rights abuses, and the commodification of our resources and full-scale neoliberalization of our food systems.
Thus, this October presents a crucial opportunity to call for the reform of our food systems and extract accountability from the Philippine government and its agencies. We also call to end systemic corruption that perpetuates the continued depletion of our resources, deepens inequality, and puts the lives of vulnerable sectors–especially women–at the brink of hunger, harassment, and even death. It is also an opportunity to call for the reparation of the climate debt owed by the Global North for its role in harming our food, land, water, and climate, as our food systems remain dependent on global supply-and-demand markets.
Rural women, at the frontlines of this drive to change the system, are heroes of our time. Even in the face of extreme disadvantage, their continued everyday struggle for survival is a revolutionary action that will one day advance the collective fight against the system for real change and a just and equitable society for all people, by all people. ###
FOR INQUIRIES:
Christian John P. Argallon
Junior Media and Communications Officer
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
Sheila Abarra
Senior Media and Communications Officer
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
Viber: +639916692356