While climate change is a threat for everyone, it does not affect everyone equally. The impacts of climate change perpetuate and magnify structural inequalities, such as those between women and men. This is especially true in many parts of the world where women rely on climate-sensitive work like agriculture and manual labour to make a living.

The climate crisis, like nearly every other humanitarian and development challenge, has a greater impact on women. This is due to the unequal sharing of power between women and men, the gender gap in access to education and employment opportunities, the unpaid care burden, prevalence of gender-based violence and all other forms of deep-rooted gender-based discrimination.

To cite a few specific examples:

• • JAMA Psychiatry published a study of over 194,000 women in three South Asian countries. It found a one-degree Celsius rise in average temperature was associated with a 6% rise in physical and sexual gender-based violence.

• • A 2023 UNICEF report cited that every 10% increase or decrease in average rainfall was associated with a 1% increase in child marriage. Extreme weather events disrupt sources of income, exacerbate food insecurity and incur costs for rebuilding and recovery. Families choose child marriage to relieve their financial burden.
  • Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, stated that one in five women who are refugees or who have been displaced because of a disaster has experienced sexual violence.

Read the full OpEd in the Boulder Weekly