Climate change affects men and women differently.CARE. "Adaptation, Gender, and Women's Empowerment." Care International Climate Change Brief. (2010). (accessed 18 March 2013). Climate change and gender is a research topic which aims to understand how men and women access and use resources that are impacted by climate change and how they experience the resulting impacts. It examines how gender roles and cultural norms influence the ability of men and women to respond to climate change, and how women's and men's roles can be better integrated into climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. It also considers how climate change intersects with other socioeconomic challenges, such as poverty, access to resources, migration, and cultural identity.
Research goals Ultimately, the goal of this research is to ensure that climate change policies and initiatives are equitable, and that both women and men benefit from them. Climate change increases gender inequality, reduces women's ability to be financially independent, and has an overall negative impact on the social and political rights of women, especially in economies that are heavily based on agriculture. In many cases, gender inequality means that women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. This is due to gender roles, particularly in the developing world, which means that women are often dependent on the natural environment for subsistence and income. By further limiting women's already constrained access to physical, social, political, and fiscal resources, climate change often burdens women more than men and can magnify existing gender inequality.Olsson, Lennart et al. "Livelihoods and Poverty." Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ed. C. B. Field et al. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 793–832. Web.(accessed 22 October 2014)Aboud, Georgina. "Gender and Climate Change." (2011).Dankelman, Irene. "Climate change is not gender-neutral: realities on the ground." Public Hearing on "Women and Climate Change". (2011)Birkmann, Joern et al."Emergent Risks and Key Vulnerabilities." Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ed. C. B. Field et al. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 1039–1099. Web. (accessed 25 October 2014).
Gender-based differences have also been identified in relation to awareness, causation and response to climate change, and many countries have developed and implemented gender-based climate change strategies and action plans. For example, the government of Mozambique adopted a Gender, Environment and Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan in early 2010, being the first government in the world to do so.Republic of Mozambique, Mozambique Climate Change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP) Report , accessed 25 December 2019 Businesses with gender-diverse boards have been found 60% more likely to minimise energy usage and 40% more likely to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Women and men experience climate change and environmental degradation differently according to gender roles and societal conventions.
Analysis of gender in climate change, however, is not limited to women. It also means not only applying a binary male/female system of analysis on sets of quantitative data, but also scrutinizing discursive constructions that shapes power relations connected to climate change,MacGregor, Sherilyn. "A Stranger Silence Still: The Need for Feminist Social Research on Climate Change." The Sociological Review 57 (2010): 124–140. . and considering how gender, as a social factor that influences responses to climate change, intersects with other variables such as age, caste, marital status, and ethnicity. This binary also excludes individuals who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and those who are non-binary and do not fit into gender norms. To understand the effects climate change has on different populations, there must be a distinction between gender and sex. Gender can be defined as the socially constructed differences between men and women that give rise to masculinity and femininity. Sex can be defined as the biological distinctions between males and females, most often in connection with reproductive functions.
Public opinion and actions
A study of young people in Finland shows that concern over climate change has a higher impact on climate friendly consumption in women compared to men. A study done in the Czech Republic showcases this phenomenon as well. This may be incidental to differences in perception of climate change. Women tend to agree with the scientific opinion that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are mainly responsible for climate change (m: 56%, f: 64%) and are more concerned about its effects: one 2010 study found 29% of men and 35% of women in the US to "worry about global warming a great deal".
Another study was conducted in 2016 using men and women from Brazil and Sweden to measure and inspect the effects of gender and political orientation on perceptions of climate change. Data was collected via online questionnaires from 367 participants from Brazil consisting of 151 men and 216 women, and 221 participants from Sweden with 75 men and 146 women. The results of the study showed a strong positive correlation between conservative men and denial of climate change in both groups (rSweden = .22, rBrazil = .19) indicating that men (typically with conservative political orientation) are more likely to deny the existence of climate change. Women in both groups mostly showed the opposite results, indicating that women are more likely to believe in the existence of climate change.
A 2010 UNDP Policy Brief study described differences in how the two genders are vulnerable to aspects of climate change. Women's incomes are more vulnerable, while men, who find more employment opportunities in agriculture, are more likely to suffer impairments to adaptation and resilience.
A study published in 2020 found that there are also differences in the coping strategies. The study, conducted among rice farmers in Mazandaran Province in Iran, found that men tend to believe that better techniques for conservation management of land is a good way to manage climate risk, while women believed that education is the most important way to adapt, since they could find out what are the better techniques and technologies to face climate risk.
A key enabler to climate change adaptation is access to useful climate information, however in Sub-Saharan Africa access to information has been found to be gendered with women having poorer access to climate information. In a study published in 2020 of smallholder sugarcane farmers in Malawi, it was found that more women than men do not access forecast information to guide adaptation decisions. Gendered access and preferences of climate information may be tied to varying marital status and well as education and literacy levels among women and men.
Contribution to climate change – through emissions of greenhouse gases – is correlated to gender. A study on car use in Sweden, for example, found that men are likely to use the car more, for longer distances and alone compared to women, thereby emitting more (a greenhouse gas).
In a survey conducted by the European Investment Bank on climate, men were found to be more sceptical about the impact of females in climate action leadership. 50% of women surveyed thought that having more females leaders would make a difference, while only 45% of men thought so. The study indicated the biggest discrepancy in the UK, where 38% of men and 61% of women agreed that women leaders would effectively combat climate change. The European Investment Fund also discovered that businesses run by women had better ESG ratings than other businesses, spend more in renewable energy sources, and invest less in polluting businesses.
Various research shows that nations with higher proportions of women in parliament are more likely to ratify environmental agreements and implement climate change policy, thus female leaders are more likely to favor climate action and sustainability.
Vulnerability
Disasters Disasters are unpredictable events that cause harm to people and damage to property, infrastructure, and the environment. They can be natural, such as floods, wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, or tsunamis, or they can be man-made, such as oil spills, industrial accidents, and terrorist attacks. Disasters can cause physical, psychological, and economic damage. They can also disrupt social networks, weaken economic systems, and cause a range of physical and mental health impacts. People affected by disasters may face displacement, loss of livelihoods, and disruption of education, among other impacts. In the wake of a disaster, governments, international organizations, and aid agencies may provide relief and assistance to those affected.
Death rates A study by the London School of Economics found that, in natural disasters in 141 countries, gender differences in deaths correlated to women's economic and social rights in those countries.Adeniji, Grace. "Adapting to climate change in Africa." Jotoafrika. no. 6 (2011). Due to their social standing, women in developing countries are not generally taught survival skills like swimming or climbing, meaning they are more likely to die in a natural disaster.Dr Virginie Le Masson and Lara Langston, Mind the gap: new disasters agreement must be more proactive on gender When women have fewer rights and less power in society, more of them die due to climate change, but when there are equal rights for all groups, death rates are more equally matched.
Women working in areas exposed to climate change effects, like agriculture, water or forestry, are also more likely to be affected by extreme weather, resulting in an increase of deaths. Countries have also reported rising violence against women and girls after natural disasters.
Men are affected by climate change effects as well, mainly because of the distinction in the job market and the presence of gender norms in society. A study the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health shows that men are more often exposed to work and outdoor activities in temperatures above 27 degrees Celsius. However, heat-related mortality rates vary among studies, indicating that it varies based on the region. Additionally, the same study found that men have a higher risk of death from accidents and injuries related to climate change. An estimated 1605 excess deaths per year could be caused by a 1.5-degree warming of the planet and 84% of these deaths are projected to be male.
Sexual abuse and disease transmission