Monday was International Women's Day. Oil companies would like you to know that they are feminists too. shell, chevron,Furthermore American Petroleum InstituteThe oil industry's largest lobby group posted a message about the importance of women in the oil and gas industry. “We salute the women who are making a difference at Chevron,” Chevron's account tweeted.
For the oil and gas industry, acts of corporate solidarity are nothing new. Last year, in a particularly cringe-worthy commemoration of International Women's Day, an apostrophe was temporarily added to the logo of a Shell petrol station run by two women, making her She'll. The stunt quickly became the subject of ridicule on Twitter (with one user saying, “More women pumping gas!”). Last summer, Shell, BP and Chevron similarly issued statements against racism and declared themselves allies of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Many of the oil companies' recent posts hint at including women in the workforce. For example, Canadian oil magnate Enbridge has announced a goal of having 40% women in the workplace and on its board of directors by 2025, and Shell tweeted an article highlighting women in positions of power at the company. did. However, if the effects of oil and gas extraction and climate change disproportionately affect women, especially women of color, oil companies' anti-racist and feminist claims can be undermined even by women running their businesses. Even the camp sounds empty.
For example, according to the United Nations, 80 percent of people displaced by climate change are women. Studies on France, China and India have found that women are more likely to die in extreme weather events such as heat waves, while studies on Bangladesh and the Philippines have found that women are more likely to die in tropical cyclones. Climate change is also associated with pregnancy risks, with people exposed to high temperatures and air pollution from hydraulic fracturing more likely to give birth to low birth weight, stillbirths, and premature babies, with black and Hispanic pregnant women being the most likely to suffer. are experiencing significant impacts.
Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005, provides an example of how natural disasters hit women hardest. A study by the Women's Policy Research Institute found that post-storm recovery policies ignored the needs of black women, resulting in displacement. Extreme weather events are associated with violence against women, even after Katrina, when women experienced higher rates of rape and violence.
Oil and gas infrastructure is also linked to gender-based and sexual violence. Corporate housing for fossil fuel workers, known as “man camps,” are well-documented sites of sexual assault and human trafficking, and are one of the factors linked to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. It is one. In a letter to President Biden urging cancellation of the Keystone XL and Line 3 pipelines, indigenous women leaders wrote: He was put on trial. ”
The irony is especially striking given that International Women's Day was born out of a radical anti-capitalist political movement aimed at highlighting the insecurities faced by women workers. While oil companies celebrate milestones in bringing women to leadership positions with cute tweets, women around the world continue to suffer assault, displacement, and death as a result of oil extraction. All the hashtags in the world can't erase that.
