Rural women's drought experiences key to policy | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

The reality of drought for rural Wairarapa women will be put under the microscope next year.
University of Otago lecturer Dr Charlotte Chambers has just completed a series of nine interviews in Marlborough as part of a research project exploring the social well-being of rural women during drought in that region.
The second phase of the project comprises a similar series of interviews of rural women in Wairarapa in May next year, she said, and the results from each region would be compared.
Wairarapa is the only region in New Zealand that has endured four official back-to-back droughts, the latest being declared for the east coast of the region.
Dr Chambers said the study seeks to capture whether and how women's roles and responsibilities shift during a severe climate event in areas of decision-making, divisions of labour and resource access and control.
''What we found in Marlborough was that the women during drought just seem to harden up and get on with it _ they literally become the glue that holds those farming families together,'' Dr Chambers said.
''They were also open and frank about their male partners suffering depression during drought, but thankfully there were no stories of suicide or domestic violence.
''The stories we heard included those about some men who had to take anti-depression medication and their women having to jolly them along in times of emotional stress,'' she said.
''We found the women had family and other off-farm connections while the men were far more bound to the farm, and consequently isolated _ there were precious few opportunities for them to get out and physically interact with others enduring the same trials.
''Dog-dosing days were apparently a godsend in that regard because it forced the men off the farm _ now those days are gone.''
Younger rural women, in particular, will be sought in Wairarapa for their involvement in the project, she said, which will help bolster a lack of research on rural woman during severe climate events.
''It is increasingly acknowledged that severe climate events such as drought are likely to have different effects on men and women, and that along with other instances of dramatic environmental change, droughts have the capacity to discriminate along lines of social difference,'' Dr Chambers said.
''To date, however, there has been inadequate studies and this research will build upon a growing corpus of work that explores the social dimensions of climate change.''
In 2008, a number of regions in the east coast of the North and South Islands of New Zealand were officially recognised as drought zones.
''The formal designation of these regions by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) as 'drought affected' confirmed what farmers in the regions already knew. ''It is anticipated that such droughts are likely to become more severe,'' Dr Chambers said.
''This project will help close the acknowledged research gap by focussing on the gendered experiences of drought in rural New Zealand.''
The project will home in on how the impacts of the drought were gendered, how existing gender roles and norms in rural communities were affected by the drought, and how understanding the gendered nature of drought may shape future drought strategies.
''We need to 'reconnect' the often abstract, scientific language of climate change with the lived, visceral and emotional experiences of particular climate events,'' Dr Chambers said.
''This is important because understanding the lived experiences and meanings of climate events is recognised as key to developing climate change policy that more accurately reflects people's vulnerability to risks, and chances of successfully adapting to that change.'' Any rural women who wish to be involved may email contact Charlotte at charlotte.chambers@ geography.otago.ac.nz