Climate Change And Women: The Magnified Inequality Across An Environmental Hazard
Climate Change And Women: The Magnified Inequality Across An Environmental Hazard i. Introduction
“If you are invisible in everyday life, your needs will not be thought of, let alone addressed, in a crisis situation.” - Matcha Phorn-in, a lesbian feminist human-rights defender.
Climate change is recognized to be the guilty cause of decay in ecosystems, wildlife, atmosphere, and life itself. However, this climatic shift is not limited to increased greenhouse gas emissions affecting planet Earth itself, but so does society. If the state of our planet reaches extreme circumstances, then our society will boil down to taking an equally extreme measure of how we operate. Right now we are drifting to that timeline as climate change worsens. Thus, the livelihood for women is overlooked due to this unacknowledged bias that positions climate change as a non-variable for gender inequality. Even so, evidence suggests that climate change encompasses more than environmental harm, but also social injustices for women.
In a society that treats women as an insignificant mouth to feed, a heart to comfort, or a forced servant, the question remains if addressing climate change is the best step to achieving true equality to both genders.
ii. Body
According to the United Nations, women carry out two and a half times more unpaid household labor than men on average. In addition, women take the key role of nursing family members from cases of sickness, injuries, or severe illnesses. This alone reinforces them to act as a foundation for support that is pragmatic for survival, especially in unsuspecting dangers from their environment.
Climate change is a driven factor for intense survival events in several countries. Thus, year-after-year when pollution grows exponentially, this leading hazard increases the likelihood to affect neighborhoods, homes, or communities with a catastrophic event. Such a scenario pushes women to bear an increasing burden to aid, assist, and nurse additional affected people, bringing even more exhaustion and stress to their daily lives.
However, climate change is not limited to additional workload for women. This interconnection brings a driving force that worsens gender inequality in most affected-areas. In extreme disasters, women and children are 14 times more likely to suffer or die than men—due to the lack of response gearing towards their needs: shelter, reproductive health, hygiene, and proper ration. These resources are often dominated to be served for men first because of gender inequality within an especially limited resource environment. In a catastrophic space with limited resources, they are at risk of experiencing a violent eruption as competition for survival—leaving women with exposure to gender-based violence indoors, in secret, or outside (UNDP, n.d.).
For several decades, society took on measures to combat this pressing issue of environmental hazards, but the underlying problem surrounding it remains unattended. In the Philippines, response to climatic disasters are viewed as Filipino resilience and resistance. However, women are continuously faced with flashes of discrimination, inequality, and even judgement in these extreme situations despite being a part of strengthening the country’s emergency response to disasters and casualties. We must recognize that true resilience is gender-blind, and one-sided violence to a specific gender loses the true meaning of humanity, empowerment, and equality. Climate change draws an environment that neglects women' s needs because of a pressing gender-based discrimination that draws unequal access to resources, medical attention, and support. We should not stop at recognizing the negative interconnection of climate change and gender inequality, but to establish a proper solution that builds an equally protected space that fixes the overlooked issue of undermining women’s safety in affected communities. Create laws, build programs, and educate the youth about the interconnection between environmental crisis and gender—because a discriminating society is not a society, but a ruthless patriarchy in disguise.
iii. Conclusion
The nature of losing humanity in a crisis environment proves to affect women in a great magnitude that are passed down unless climate change is addressed across the globe. But is the madness truly rooted in the environment, or has it always stayed inside of us. Regardless, a solution to address climate change and its consequences requires global efforts. In line with the growing potency of climate change, I believe setting the goal of alleviating climate change is a direction aimed at earning gender equality—a reward that people might not expect it to be.
SOURCES:
United Nations. (n.d.). Why women are key to climate action. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/women
UNDP. (n.d.). Women are hit hardest by disasters. So why are responses too often gender-blind? United Nations Development Programme. https://www.undp.org/blog/women-are-hit-hardest-disasters-so-why-are-responses-too-often-gender-blind
UN Women. (2025, April 21). How gender inequality and climate change are interconnected. https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/explainer/how-gender-inequality-and-climate-change-are-interconnected
United Nations Development Programme. (n.d.). Why gender equality is crucial to tackling climate change. Climate Promise. https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/why-gender-equality-crucial-tackling-climate-change