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Frameworks, methods and evidence connecting modern domestic energy services and gender empowerment

Nature Energy volume 8, pages 435–449 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The world remains far from meeting Sustainable Development Goals 5 (gender equality) and 7 (universal access to modern energy). Energy access may empower women even as empowered women are more likely to adopt and use modern energy services. Such bidirectional linkages are underappreciated in the empirical literature, which typically estimates unidirectional relationships based on simple binary indicators. Here we review theoretical frameworks on women’s empowerment, take stock of the empirical literature on the connections between women’s empowerment and energy access, and place empirical results in the context of the theoretical literature. We highlight major knowledge gaps that require further attention from researchers and practitioners. In particular, we recommend the use of more comprehensive measures of energy services, the consideration of a richer set of gender empowerment indicators and the application of pluralistic methods to address the challenges of understanding how energy intersects with gender.

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Fig. 1: Linkages studied for women’s empowerment as a driver of energy adoption.
Fig. 2: Linkages studied for energy as a driver of women’s empowerment.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to EfD Initiative members in the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative (SETI), the Women in Environmental Economics for Development (WinEED) Collaborative, and many policy-maker and practitioner participants in a workshop on gender and energy, who provided early feedback on the nature and content of this Review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sanford School of Public Policy and Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Ipsita Das, Thomas Klug, P. P. Krishnapriya, Subhrendu K. Pattanayak & Marc Jeuland

  2. Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Victoria Plutshack

  3. School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Rajah Saparapa & Stephanie Scott

  4. College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Erin Sills

  5. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Njeri Kara

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Das, I., Klug, T., Krishnapriya, P.P. et al. Frameworks, methods and evidence connecting modern domestic energy services and gender empowerment. Nat Energy 8, 435–449 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01234-7

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