The gender-climate change interrelationship, its causes and consequences, are a regular part of international climate change discussions at the Conferences of the Parties of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This master’s thesis researches the gendered environmental discourses accumulated at the Conferences of the Parties and their impact on the way gender is understood, presented or discussed as a part of climate change debates. Guided by the social constructivist theory, this thesis understands the gendered environmental discourses as social constructs. Therefore, the goal of this master’s thesis is to uncover and question these discourses, as well as the impact these discourses have on the international climate change policy-making. The empirical focus of this thesis is on the critical discourse analysis of the documents produced at the COP that speak about gender in climate change – the reinforced Gender Action Plan and two project descriptions. This thesis demonstrates that most of the times gender means women only, most commonly referring to the women from underdeveloped regions. These women are labelled as climate victims, but at the same time, they are viewed as having special knowledge on how to adequately address climate change challenges. These discourses manifest in policy-making as the discussions, actions and documents, which are focused on women, rather than on social inequalities of gender constructions. Moreover, the preferred solutions to the vulnerable position of women are seen in including women in political debates or environmental management programs but do not question the primary causes of inequalities.
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