Research overview: gender dimensions of human-big cat conflict

This overview synthesises emerging research on how gender shapes exposure, perception, and response to big-cat conflict. It reviews evidence that women and men often experience conflict differently, owing to divisions of labour, fuelwood and fodder collection, livestock herding, water fetching, that determine who enters predator habitat and when, and that women's voices are frequently underrepresented in conflict decision-making. The literature examines gendered risk, attitudes, and the consequences of losing livestock managed by women. It argues that gender-sensitive analysis improves both the equity and effectiveness of mitigation. The survey frames attention to gender as a needed corrective in a field that has often treated affected communities as undifferentiated.