{"id":29569,"date":"2020-03-08T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/?p=29569"},"modified":"2020-03-06T12:14:30","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T17:14:30","slug":"the-fossil-fuel-industrys-genderwashing-exposes-another-layer-of-their-hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/story\/29569\/the-fossil-fuel-industrys-genderwashing-exposes-another-layer-of-their-hypocrisy\/","title":{"rendered":"The fossil fuel industry\u2019s \u201cgenderwashing\u201d exposes another layer of their hypocrisy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every year when International Women\u2019s Day<\/strong> comes around on the 8th of March, it\u2019s now normal to see corporations jumping on the opportunity<\/strong> to make their brands appear more interested in gender equality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

Companies organise or sponsor Women\u2019s Day events, or even repackage their products or run promotions aimed at women.<\/p>\n\n

The fossil fuel industry is no different<\/strong>. As companies who have damaged their public image by ignoring the pollution they cause<\/strong>, International Women\u2019s Day looks like a chance for them to gain some brownie points<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

Many tweet about the career options women have<\/strong> in their industry: <\/p>\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n

Or they focus on the gender gap<\/strong> in research and technology:<\/p>\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n

Others run competitions, or sponsor cultural events<\/strong> like film launches:<\/p>\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n

Fossil fuel companies have for years tried \u2018greenwashing\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 presenting themselves as concerned about the environment<\/a>, saying fossil gas is a climate-friendly fuel<\/a>, or investing a tiny percentage of their money in renewables to pretend they are part of the energy transition<\/a>. Many of them even just change their logos or branding to look more \u2018green\u2019<\/strong>. So they have had some practice in appearing to care about the social impacts of their business, and now they have seen International Women\u2019s Day as a chance to do some \u2018genderwashing\u2019 of their brands<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

But the day-to-day business of these corporations \u2013 extracting, selling and burning fossil fuels \u2013 causes harm to women by polluting the environment<\/strong> and driving climate breakdown<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

The extraction, transport and processing of fossil fuels has disastrous effects<\/strong> on the local environment. When there are spills and other accidents<\/a>, the damage is multiplied.<\/p>\n\n

Women are often in more precarious social or economic situations, meaning that they can suffer more from the impacts of this pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n

But as we well know, the impact of fossil fuel extraction and use goes far beyond accidents and spills<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

The impacts of climate breakdown are wide-ranging<\/a> \u2013 from droughts and heatwaves to storms and floods \u2013 and very often these harm women the most.<\/p>\n\n

Recent research<\/a> has shown that, shockingly, climate breakdown is even making women more vulnerable to gender-based violence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

\"screenshot<\/figure>\n\n

So our call to fossil fuel corporations and other climate-wrecking companies is this:<\/p>\n\n

We don\u2019t want to see your gender-washing posts<\/strong> on International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n\n

The climate emergency and environmental destruction hurt women the most.<\/p>\n\n

If you really care about women\u2019s rights, stop making them worse.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\u2014
<\/p>\n\n

Silvia Pastorelli<\/em><\/a> is a climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace\u2019s European Unit in Brussels<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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