Climate change adaptation: intra-household gender relations and the decisions of smallholder women farmers in Uganda

Amayo, Flavia (2025). Climate change adaptation: intra-household gender relations and the decisions of smallholder women farmers in Uganda. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Climate change adversely impacts the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Global South. However, women experience severe effects due to adaptation decision-making constraints. The majority of studies explain these constraints on the basis of inequities in gender relations with limited focus on the contribution of the interactions between formal and informal gendered institutions even though, impediments to adaptation decision-making may link to gendered institutions. My thesis deviates from the majority of previous studies in that it makes a contribution by investigating the influences of the interconnection between the interactions of gendered institutions and intra-household gender relations. I conceptualise gendered institutions as formal and informal rules that impose gendered implications on the capacities of women and men to decide how to adapt to climate change. Adaptation decisions are conceived with respect to the liberty to choose from available adaptation strategies, appropriate implementation of adaptation strategies and adaptation intensity.

This study is guided by two distinct but related theoretical perspectives – Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) and Social Relations Approach (SRA). Helmke and Levitsky’s (2004) categorisation of formal and informal institution interactions – complementary, accommodation, competition and substitution – is integrated to elucidate analysis of gendered institution interactions. These theoretical perspectives facilitate nuanced comprehension of the interlinkages between interactions of gendered institutions and intra-household gender relations and their effects on women’s adaptation decision-making. This research was conducted in Uganda where rain-fed smallholder agriculture is the primary source of survival and women play a critical role. Participatory research methods were employed to collect empirical data and document review to generate secondary data to complement detailed understanding of the interactions of gendered institutions. Data was thematically analysed. NVivo software aided the analysis of empirical data whilst the secondary data was analysed manually.

This study interrogates how the interactions between gendered institutions and their interlinkages with intra-household gender relations shape the abilities of women farmers to make adaptation decisions. Investigations are undertaken by examining, intra-household gender relations that women navigate in adaptation decision-making, how gendered institutions interact with each other and with intra-household gender relations and the climate change experiences of women farmers and decisions about how to adapt to climate change. My study reveals that, constraints to the abilities of women farmers to make adaptation decisions are, constructed and continually being reconstructed through the interrelationships between the interactions of formal and informal gendered institutions and intra-household gender relations. Therefore, I argue that, whilst informal gendered institutions, such as cultural norms and patriarchal household rules, often sabotage the intended gender equity outcomes of formal institutions conversely, they also provide women (and sometimes men) with the opportunity to develop creative agency. This facilitates women’s navigation of gender disparities and space to negotiate adaptation decisions.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):