Climate Change is a Life Task for Us All, Not Just for Cuban Women! Lessons in Gendered Climate Change Resilience From a Socialist Small Island Developing Nation

Author(s): Arzucan Askin, Caitlan Read, Marta Santiváñez

Type: Written pitch

Department: Department of Geography and Environment

Exhibit no: 34


This qualitative research explores the socio-political factors that determine Cuban women’s resilience, and their contribution to the country’s plan for climate action: Tarea Vida (“Life Task”). An in-depth literature review, ethnographic fieldwork and 40 interviews were conducted at three research sites.

The findings suggest that within the context of the US embargo the ideological power of women’s identity as revolutionaries and survivors of the “Special Period” is the main driver behind their environmental leadership, self-sufficiency and innovation mindset. The findings bear critical implications for the Life Task of climate change faced by the global community as a whole.

Acknowledgements: Funded by the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG) and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE.

Caitlan Read, Department of International Relations 
Marta Santiváñez, Department of Social Policy