Intégration des inégalités de genre dans un modèle de dynamique des systèmes global : une mise à jour du rapport « The Limits to Growth »

Abstract

Several major global challenges like climate change, planetary boundaries, and social inequalities require a rethinking of sustainability models. While the historical Limits to Growth report laid the foundations for global system dynamics modeling, it did not explicitly account for social dimensions such as gender inequality. This thesis proposes an update to the World3 model to integrate key components of the Gender Inequality Index (GII), including female secondary education, maternal mortality, women’s economic participation, and political representation. Using this extended framework, several scenarios are analyzed : the original World3 trajectories (BAU, BAU2, CT, and SW) as well as a new alternative scenario, IIG+, which prioritizes policies for women’s empowerment. The simulation is carried out in Vensim, and the newly integrated social variables allow tracking the evolution of GII across all trajectories. Results show that purely technological or economic strategies are insufficient to reduce gender inequalities. Conversely, the IIG+ scenario, even without technological change, significantly lowers the GII while also contributing to demographic stabilization and greater long-term sustainability. This suggests a leverage effect of social and feminist policies within systemic models. The final discussion introduces a feminist perspective on system dynamics modeling, including a proposed taxonomy of the socio-cultural subsystem, a new ecofeminist indicator, and a reflection on the crucial role of invisible labor.

Date	22 Aug 2025
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Daniel Rousse (Supervisor) & Yves-Marie Abraham (Co-supervisor)