Abstract
A growing research agenda has sought to understand the substantial inequalities that exist in domestic energy provision. One way in which these inequalities are shaped is through socio-spatially contingent gender relations, an area underexplored with regards to energy poverty. This paper aims to uncover the spatialities of gender and energy poverty. It argues that established energy vulnerability frameworks can challenge the assumption that gender inequality is synonymous with energy poverty, but to do so these framings must move beyond a focus upon the household to recognise the vulnerability of individuals. Gendered vulnerabilities likely to enhance energy poverty are delineated for a case study of England, underpinned by socio-spatial analyses of gender-sensitive indicators. Five dimensions of gendered, socio-spatial energy vulnerability are evidenced in this context: exclusion from the economy; time-consuming and unpaid reproductive, caring or domestic roles; exposure to physiological and mental health impacts; a lack of social protection during a life course; and coping and helping others to cope. The findings demonstrate that whilst it is possible to draw initial conclusions about the spatialities of gendered energy vulnerability associated with health and economic activity, this is more complex concerning gendered aspects of energy vulnerability related to infrastructure that tend to be measured at the scale of the household, or those aspects of vulnerability that are relatively private or personal.
Highlights
Across the so-called Global North a renewed focus upon the relationship between gender and poverty in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis and subsequent period of austerity (Rubery, 2015) has highlighted the disproportionate impact that cuts to public spending are having upon women, those in marginalised groups (A Fairer Deal for Women, 2016), disrupting and in places reversing progress towards gender equality (Perrons, 2015)
Substantial inequalities exist in domestic energy provision, sustained and produced by a neo-liberal, austerity-oriented economic system
The central aim of the paper was to uncover the spatialities of gender and energy poverty for a case study of England
Summary
Across the so-called Global North a renewed focus upon the relationship between gender and poverty in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis and subsequent period of austerity (Rubery, 2015) has highlighted the disproportionate impact that cuts to public spending are having upon women, those in marginalised groups (A Fairer Deal for Women, 2016), disrupting and in places reversing progress towards gender equality (Perrons, 2015). Drawing upon decades of feminist scholarship, here gender is understood as the social, economic and political constructions of ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’, a fundamental axis of social power that shapes social relations in an unequal way. Central to such scholarship is the understanding that gender is not, a discrete category. For McDowell (1999) these interconnections with other axes of social power and oppression mean that gender relations are constituted in varied and uneven ways over space and time. McDowell highlights how ‘the advantages and disadvantages conferred by the social constructions of masculinity vary across space and time, as they intersect with class relations, labour market changes and the geographically specific relations of place’ (2016: 2093). Geographical variations in gender relations it is argued, are integral to the construction and
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