Environmental Gender Disparities

Climate change is a global phenomenon and one of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century. While it impacts people from all over the world, its effects are being shaped by entrenched gender inequalities.

Women in many developing countries suffer gender inequalities with respect to human rights, economic status, education and health. Due to climate change being a “threat multiplier,” it escalates tensions in fragile settings and is an added stressor that can aggravate women’s vulnerability. These women face increased vulnerability to all forms of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, human trafficking, and child marriage.

“While they sleep, wash, bathe or dress in emergency shelters, tents or camps, the risk of sexual violence is a tragic reality of their lives as migrants or refugees,” Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said. “Compounding this is the increased danger of human trafficking, and child, early and forced marriage which women and girls on the move endure.”

The difference between men and women can be seen in their different responsibilities and opportunities in society. Worldwide, women have less access to resources that could enhance their capacity to adapt to climate change than men. The UN revealed that seventy percent of the 1.3 billion people living in conditions of poverty are women. In addition, while they predominate in the world’s food production (50–80 percent), they own less than ten percent of the land.

Women are increasingly being seen as more vulnerable than men to the impacts of climate change because they are proportionally more dependent on threatened natural resources to increase overall family welfare and reduce child malnutrition.

When disasters such as droughts and floods occur, women are much less likely to survive due to the gender inequalities that have created disparities in information and decision-making. In the wake of the 2004 tsunami, an Oxfam report found that surviving men outnumbered women by almost 3–1 in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. This was likely because the men were able to swim to safety while the women lost precious evacuation time trying to look after their children.

In many societies, socio-cultural norms prevent women from migrating or seeking refuge in other places, increasing their burden. They also tend to work more to secure household livelihoods, such as travelling longer to get drinking water, leaving less time for them to access resources and training. In the aftermath, women are less able to access assistance, further threatening their well-being, thus creating a vicious cycle of vulnerability to future disasters.

While women experience disproportionate impacts, the effects are not uniform. Looking at climate change through the lens of intersectional feminism, it is clear that climate change risks are acute, especially for LQBTIQ+, indigenous, migrant, disabled women, and those living in rural and disaster-prone areas.