For mother earth - & her daughters

It is a matter of irony — and urgency — that we wish each other ‘Happy Women’s Day’ today. This is ironical because the world faces an unprecedented existential crisis now. Termed ‘global warming’, humanity’s use of fossil fuels, and its destruction of non-human species, have unleashed the Anthropocene, the era of human impacts literally changing how our planet functions, lives and breathes. As we release heating emissions, Earth warms, altering seasons, storms, soils and seas.
Meanwhile, humanity suffers a debilitating gender crisis — as the UN finds, one out of every ten women lives in extreme poverty. Compared to 27% men, 32% women face moderate to severe food insecurity. The World Bank estimates globally, 31% women are not in education, training or employment, compared to only 15% men — while under 15% traditional agricultural landholders are women, 37% lack access to the internet, a modern way to upward mobility.
Earth’s ecological emergency and the crisis of women’s empowerment are linked — both were born in the dawn of modernity. The 18th century onwards, humanity experienced multiple scientific breakthroughs, causing productivity and profitability to sky-rocket. However, these advances were also a leap back — they conjoined with brutal extractive practices worldwide. The Industrial Revolution came enveloped in slavery and was followed by a succession of breath-takingly violent wars.
Grabbing resources frenetically inspired a range of regressive attitudes, from racism to speciesism — the idea that humans ‘ruled’ Earth and all others were ‘inferior’ — and sexism. Women began to be seen as ‘lesser’ people, kept on the margins of science and technology, deprived of economic power — even now, only 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women CEOs — and political agency. Among 195 countries, 112 — including, prominently, the United States, where all stability currently seems Trumped — have never had a woman head of state. The age of progress thus brought great benefits to some — and wreaked enormous damage to Earth and her daughters.
However, there are solutions even in such bleakness. As Times Evoke’s global experts emphasise, recognising the linkages between the Anthropocene and the gender scene is crucial. By addressing their shared causes — from a decayed masculinity to selfishly deployed technology, relentlessly extracting what it can’t replace — the world can envisage ways to correct both catastrophes. Join Times Evoke in wishing each other ‘Happy Women’s Day’ — in this lies a prayer for everyone’s stability.