Women and climate change

Although climate change affects everyone, it is not gender neutral. Climate change magnifies existing inequalities, reinforcing the disparity between women and men in their vulnerability to and capability to cope with climate change.

Women, as the majority of the world's poor, are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Not only are poor women more likely to become direct victims (mortalities and injuries) of climate change disasters, such as hurricanes and flooding, during natural disasters, often more women die than men because they are not warned, cannot swim or cannot leave the house alone. When poor women lose their livelihoods, they slip deeper into poverty and the inequality and marginalization they suffer from because of their gender increases. Therefore, climate change presents a very specific threat to their security.

Women made up 55-70% of the Banda Aceh (Indonesia) tsunami deaths, and in the worst affected village Kuala Cangkoy, in the North Aceh district, 80% of the deaths were women. According to BBC News online, of the 2003 French heat wave toll of 15,000, about 70% were women. And in the U.S., Hurricane Katrina entrenched poor African-American women, who were already the most impoverished group in the nation, in deeper levels of poverty.

Women's responsibilities in the family make them more vulnerable to environmental change, which is exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. They are being affected in their multiple roles as food producers and providers, as guardians of health, care givers, and economic actors. As access to basic needs and natural resources, such as shelter, food, fertile land, water and fuel, becomes hampered, women's workload increases. Also poor families, under which many female-headed households occur (e.g. 15% in Bangladesh, 10% in Nepal and 35% in rural India) often live in more precarious situations, on low lands, along dangerous riverbanks, or on steep slopes.

Drought, deforestation and erratic rainfall cause women to work harder to secure (natural) resources and livelihoods. In such situations, women have less time to earn income, get an education or training, or to participate in governing bodies. Girls regularly drop out of school to help their mothers to gather wood and water. “Loss of livelihood assets, displacement and migration may lead to reduced access to education opportunities, thus hampering the realization of MDG2 [United Nations Millennium Development Goal 2]. Depletion of natural resources and decreasing agricultural productivity may place additional burdens on women's health and reduce time for decision-making processes and income-generating activities, worsening gender equality and women's empowerment (MDG3)…”.

Conflict that arises from a shortage of natural resources amplifies existing gender inequalities, while the relocation of people has severe impacts on social support networks and family ties-mechanisms that have a crucial value for women, and in their coping capacity.