Manisha Mukherjee (Maastricht University, UNU-MERIT)

Manisha Mukherjee
Maastricht University, UNU-MERIT

Résumé

The adverse effects of climate change on agriculture can be particularly detrimental to many landless female laborers who depend on it for their livelihoods. This study examines the long-run effects of temperature rises on the gendered sectoral reallocation of labor in rural areas of India. Using a district-level panel dataset spanning 30 years (1987–2018), I show that increasing long-term temperatures are associated with men shifting to non-agricultural sectors, while women remain trapped in agriculture and work at lower wages. These effects are most pronounced in districts with a high share of landless female laborers (belonging to the backward Scheduled Caste community) at baseline, where a 1 degree C increase in long-term average temperatures is associated with a 34% rise in the female-to-male employment ratio in agriculture. Supporting empirical evidence suggests declines in agricultural wages and strong substitution effects among men within households, but not among women. Rising temperatures are also linked to declining female rural-urban migration, which further restricts women’s exit from agriculture. Additional evidence from qualitative fieldwork highlights that restrictive gender and social norms related to job suitability and mobility impose high costs of transition on women and limit their sectoral reallocation. Overall, the findings highlight how climate change is interacting with existing regressive social institutions and amplifying gender inequalities in developing countries.

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