Women face the greatest climate risks but are critical to climate action

By Ruhi Bhasin

The climate crisis is worsening many of the economic and social inequalities already faced by women and girls, making it harder to access health care, education, employment, and other necessities. Women in rural communities are especially vulnerable because many depend directly on agriculture and natural resources to support their families. As extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, these existing pressures are becoming harder to navigate.

As the United Nations has noted, the climate crisis is not “gender neutral.” Women, girls, and children are 14 times more likely to die during extreme weather disasters than men, facing higher rates of displacement and structural inequalities that limit their access to information, mobility, and resources. “An estimated 4 out of 5 people displaced by the impacts of climate change are women and girls. Acute disasters can also disrupt essential services, including sexual and reproductive health care, compounding the negative impacts for women and girls,” stated the United Nations.

How the Climate Crisis Is Affecting Women and Girls

Extreme weather disasters push many women and girls into increasingly precarious situations almost overnight. The torrential rains in Pakistan in 2022 claimed 1,700 lives and affected millions of people. This “extreme weather condition,” resulting from climate change, led to widespread damage and loss but affected women like Sajida severely, robbing many like her of their dreams and aspirations.

Recounting the ordeal she and her family went through, she told UNICEF, “We had nothing to eat for 15 days. My whole family got malaria, and we couldn’t access medicines or hospitals as Khairpur was drowned.” Unable to keep up with her studies after returning to school, she did poorly in her exams and failed to advance to the next class. “Her parents did not have enough funds to help her repeat another school year. … she wanted to grow up to be a doctor, but poverty and repetitive climate catastrophes have robbed her of these aspirations, turning her into a refugee seeking shelter from the battering rains,” stated the UNICEF blog.

In Pakistan, the floods didn’t just rob women and girls of education opportunities but also left almost 650,000 pregnant women without access to health care and forced them to give birth without any medical help. Moreover, research has shown that “extreme heat increases incidence of stillbirth, and warming global temperatures are helping to spread vector-borne illnesses such as malaria, dengue fever, and Zika virus,” stated a UN Women article.

Natural disasters resulting from climate change also lead to more child marriages as families seek to lessen the burden of having to provide for a girl child when resources are already scarce. Those already struggling face greater instability and debilitating poverty after a climate crisis, leading to more cases of conflict-related sexual violence and human trafficking.

“Humanitarian programmes tend to be heteronormative and can reinforce the patriarchal structure of society if they do not take into account sexual and gender diversity,” pointed out Matcha Phorn-in, a lesbian feminist human-rights defender.

Exacerbating the inequalities women and girls struggle to overcome, the climate crisis makes it even harder for them to access the support, stability, and resources needed to recover and adapt during weather catastrophes.

Gendered Perspectives Need to be Part of the Climate Solution

For climate policies to have an impact, women’s equality and empowerment need to be integral to the policy consideration. This requires giving women a seat at the table when important decisions are taken about the climate crisis and ensuring that they have better access to resources.

“By integrating gender considerations into national climate plans, countries can address the distinct needs and adaptive capacities of women and men and ensure equitable access to and sharing of benefits,” stated the UNDP.

Women make up a significant share of the agricultural workforce in many developing countries and produce up to 80 percent of the food supply. Yet despite this central role, many women farmers still lack equal access to resources, technologies, services, and information about adaptation measures, cropping patterns, and weather events. According to the UNDP, these inequalities contribute to lower productivity and wages while leaving women more exposed to the impacts of climate change.

Providing greater access to agricultural resources and information for women can help build more resilient solutions to the climate crisis, especially at the community level. Ensuring that women, especially Indigenous women, are more involved in forest governance can result in more “effective and lasting solutions to deforestation and climate change impacts.”

Women Are Integral to Resolving the Climate Crisis

Any meaningful response to the climate crisis requires the equal participation of women, as they are not only the most affected by the issue but also have the tools and knowledge that hold the key to offering sustainable solutions. “Higher women’s political participation has been shown to lead to improved environmental sustainability. … Moreover, women’s local knowledge of sustainable resource management and their community leadership play a critical role in advancing climate change mitigation and adaptation. They are also important for recovery and resilience across sectors, from water management and food security to nature-based solutions and circular economy,” according to the UNDP.

For instance, Paran Women Group, an Indigenous women’s organization that brings together members of the Maasai and Ogiek communities in Kenya, has cultivated dryland and generated livelihoods through sustainable agriculture, beekeeping, and Indigenous tree nurseries.

Women are also responsible for 70 to 80 percent of all purchasing decisions in wealthy countries and are more likely to recycle, minimize waste, and save water and energy at home. “By leading behavior change and consumer attitudes, women can drive change across sectors. At the political level, research shows clear linkages between women’s leadership and action to tackle climate change. For example, studies have found that countries with higher proportions of women in parliament are more likely to ratify international environmental treaties and have stricter climate policies. … It is time to invest in women as a strong force for change, leading the way to a more sustainable future,” stated the UN.

As climate instability worsens, women’s involvement in environmental decision-making and local resilience efforts is becoming essential—not just for representation, but for building climate solutions that reflect the realities communities are actually facing.

Right from the rural women in the Himalayan region in India who participated in the Chipko movement or “tree-hugging” movement in the 1970s to prevent 2,000 trees from being felled to the Indigenous women activists and allies protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016, women have been on the frontlines of protecting and nurturing the environment, being “deeply embedded in the history and practice of climate justice.”

Ruhi Bhasin is a senior journalist and features editor with the Independent Media Institute. She previously worked for The Times of India and The Indian Express, where she covered politics, law, and social issues. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.