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Don't place the burden of going green on female consumers

In contrast, men are more wasteful, leave a greater carbon footprint, recycle less and feel less guilty about their non-green behavior.

Ariza A. Ramadhani and Citra Handayani Nasruddin (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, April 21, 2021

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Don't place the burden of going green on female consumers

F

rom bringing reusable shopping bags to sorting out household waste, society has labeled sustainable actions as a feminine trait. The reason behind this is obvious yet uncomfortable. Women are seen as the primary and often the only caretaker of various domestic duties.

Therefore, it is unsurprising that a myriad of eco-friendly brands targets female customers. Eventually, this gesture has contributed to reinforcing green-feminine stereotypes and subsequently justifies men avoiding green behaviors. 

Expecting the valiant minority of female green consumers to find a way out of unsustainability is not enough. While females are key to promoting a circular economy, businesses and the government are required to play their part to fix structural problems, which could balance the people's responsibility, irrespective of their gender, to act sustainably. 

Prior research has found that women are more eco-friendly than men in many aspects, including behavior, attitudes or choices. In purchasing goods and services, for instance, they care about green labels and prefer energy-saving products. Women also actively reuse, recycle and sort household waste. In contrast, men produce more waste, leave a greater carbon footprint, recycle less and feel less guilty about their non-green behavior.

Consistent with those findings, last year's study by Bindu Shrestha et al. suggested that women actively participate in energy-saving actions and are significantly more aware of their families' energy consumption.

On the flip side, contrary to their nobler intentions to act sustainably, women may inevitably litter frequently than thought. They experience a monthly period for roughly 40 years during their lives and, therefore, may use 5,000 to 15,000 menstrual pads or tampons, producing a lot of waste. In addition, society has disproportionately shifted the burden to women as family caretakers. Hence, household decisions to consider purchasing disposable or cloth diapers for their children are mainly made by mothers. 

Against this backdrop, the following questions arise: Why do women choose disposable products when they have a higher intention to use green products? Should they bear the responsibility alone? What are the roles of businesses and policymakers? To answer those questions, we must first understand sustainable consumption and what entails such a practice.

Sustainable consumption is neither a trivial task nor a straightforward process. The United Nations Commission Sustainable Development (UNCSD) defines sustainable consumption and production as "the use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations." It is a complex nature that captivates cross-sectional fields of studies, from economics to psychology.

Several studies, such as one conducted by John Thøgersen (2014), revealed some root causes of environmentally harmful behaviors. They also suggested that unsustainable consumption is mostly unintentional; therefore, informational and educational means are not a sufficient game-changer. Moreover, other research showed that people resort to unsustainable consumption because of economic constraints, institutional barriers, unequal access, social norms and expectations.

The double-burden of women's paid and unpaid work and disproportionate burden of caregiving, to name a few examples, may require them to save energy and time, and hence purchase disposable products.

Nevertheless, there is always the issue of inclusivity. Most women do not have access to economic resources and information about a more sustainable choice in their teenage or adolescent period, such as disposable menstrual pads or cups. Unsustainable consumption often comes out of sheer habit or simply because that is what everyone else does. Consequently, conscious and responsible consumption behaviors take a long time to develop and rely on individual, political and marketing factors.

Aaron Brough et al. (2016) maintained that both women and men consider green actions a feminine trait. Accordingly, men are reluctant to engage in sustainable activities because they want to preserve the masculine image. Public perception, for that reason, has shaped women’s and men's environmental consciousness.

This finding also indicates there is room to improve men's engagement and participation in sustainable practices. Businesses, for example, can influence green behaviors among men by affirming masculinity in marketing their eco-friendly products. Eco-friendly brands can also promote and sell their products without portraying green-feminine stereotypes.

Meanwhile, an enabling environment is essential to foster sustainable behavior. Policy intervention through regulations, social context and behavioral nudges are likely to push the goal forward. A joint strategy across sectors is further needed to ensure the availability and the accessibility of incentive structures, institutional rules and pro-environmental choices.

As consumption becomes the main driver of many countries' economic growth, their strategy should be tied to the national development programs and policies. Ultimately, in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic recovery programs and countercyclical measures implemented by governments to boost growth must also incorporate efforts to promote sustainable consumption from people and businesses.

It is reasonable to assume that all sectors must take responsibility for sustainable behaviors. As the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable suggested in its study, the government, businesses and people, irrespective of their gender, proportionately play important roles in behavioral change toward sustainable consumption.

On the production side, more business sectors should pay more attention to their production processes and how they brand eco-friendly products, suggesting gender-neutrality to show their responsible act for the environment.

More importantly, it is the government's role to tackle the “perverse” incentive structure to encourage sustainable behavior from businesses and people. To that end, public policies can play a major role in this endeavor by fixing economic constraints, institutional barriers and inequalities in allowing and nudging people to behave more sustainably.

There are plentiful opportunities for the government to leverage its substantial role. First, it should set visible examples of renewable energy use in public settings, like schools and government offices. Second, it needs to collaborate with business champions, for instance, in financing, researching and developing environmental projects and technologies. Third, through the transfer and village fund, it must empower local governments to help people play their role in sustainable communities.

And finally, the government must promote gender equality and combat discrimination, as men and women both are responsible for the sustainability of the environment.

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The writers are cofounders of The EcoMOMics, an education platform for mothers and women to share and discuss everyday economics. They have educational backgrounds and working experiences in the area of economics, communications and public policy.

 

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