Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Spring 2024

Date of Submission

2025-12-06

Advisor

Ramsha Siddiqui, Lecturer, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Climate Change, Gendered Vulnerability, Resilience, Feminist Political Ecology, Intersectionality

Abstract

This thesis explores the gendered impacts of climate change in Gojal, Hunza (Gilgit-Baltistan), one of Pakistan’s most climate-vulnerable mountain regions. It investigates how women perceive and respond to environmental changes such as glacial melt, unpredictable rainfall, and glacial lake outburst floods, and how these intersect with entrenched socio-economic and cultural inequalities. Using a feminist qualitative approach, the study documents women’s daily experiences and adaptive practices within broader ecological and institutional contexts. Findings show that women, central to agriculture, water and food security, caregiving, and community resilience, face heightened burdens due to exclusion from land ownership, decision-making, and institutional support, while male out-migration further intensifies their responsibilities. Despite these challenges, women demonstrate resilience through crop diversification, tunnel farming, food preservation, and informal networks, yet their agency remains largely invisible in formal adaptation policies, which often remain gender blind. Drawing on feminist political ecology, intersectionality, and resilience theory, the thesis argues that vulnerability in high-altitude contexts is socially constructed and differentiated, and calls for gender-responsive, locally grounded adaptation strategies. By centering women’s voices, the research reframes them as active agents of resilience and contributes empirical evidence to both scholarship and policy, underscoring the urgency of inclusive climate planning in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pages

70

Available for download on Friday, December 18, 2026

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