Does energy poverty have a female face in Chile?

Abstract

The relationship between gender inequalities (GI) and energy poverty (EP) has not been discussed as a whole in worldwide recent debates, although feminist analyses have demonstrated that GI have had an impact on the everyday life of women, men, and their dependents. This research paper addresses the relationship between GI and EP through an analysis of relevant secondary sources on poverty and people’s use of time, in order to understand how GI affect women’s access to energy in Latin America, particularly in Chile. Moreover, it seems that there are reasons to believe that EP has a female face. Therefore, this study looks into strategic policies for ensuring safe and affordable energy for women. Likewise, this research paper presents how these efforts would contribute to deal with some other key issues, such as energy transition and a sustainable development process. To sum up, this investigation identifies the possible benefits that improving energy access would bring to women, as well as how those improvements would consistently help to meet the goals established by international treaties that aim to seek equality for women through ending poverty and by giving them access to energy.

Keywords

• energy poverty
• gender
• women
• care
• unpaid work