Women and Climate Change: Vulnerabilities and Challenges

Abstract

Although climate change will affect everyone worldwide, its impacts will be distributed dif- ferently betweenmen and women as well as among regions, generations, age classes, income groups, and occupations. The poor, themajority of whomare women living in developing countries, will be disproportion- ately affected. Yetmost of the debate on cli- mate so far has been gender-blind.1 Gender inequality and climate change are inextricably linked. By exacerbating inequality overall, climate change slows progress toward gender equality and thus impedes efforts to achieve wider goals like poverty reduction and sustainable development. And women are powerful agents of change whose leadership on climate change is criti- cal.Women can help or hinder strategies related to energy use, deforestation, popula- tion, economic growth, and science and technology, among other things