Photograph by Laura Schaeffer / Connected Archives
Words by Eve Upton-Clark
While doing the weekly shop, shelves are now stocked with recycled toilet paper, plastic-free shampoo, biodegradable cleaning wipes, and reusable period products. In a society where we often fear we are not doing enough to save the planet, these swaps go a small way in quelling the guilt for polluting our oceans and speeding up global heating. That is, if you’re a woman. If you’re a man, there’s a chance you may not have noticed.
The climate crisis is not gender neutral. Women tend to get hit harder by its effects and often don’t get a fair say in shaping policies. At the same time, they are more likely to care more and do more to help the planet. The result of this is what the market research firm Mintel has termed an “eco gender gap” after finding that 71% of women say they actively try to live more ethically compared to just 59% of men.
This gender gap relies on a binary understanding of gender, one where men and women slot into traditional roles. Women are in charge of the running of the household, with chores such as cleaning, laundry, and the weekly shop falling under that banner. Men are perhaps tasked with taking out the bins. Even then, the research shows that women are more committed to regular recycling than men, as well as trying to waste less food, use less water, and save energy in the home.
For independent researcher Dr. Virginie Le Masson, this gap is “linked to the division of labor and the division of domestic and reproductive activities,” Le Masson tells Atmos. “As long as this gap exists, we will exacerbate the gap that may also exist between men’s and women’s perception of what they can do to have a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.” All this runs the risk of communicating the message that sustainability is women’s work.
Despite often picking up the slack on sustainability efforts in the household, women also experience more “eco-anxiety” than men. According to a July poll by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist, 59% of women said they think climate change is a big deal, whereas only 49% of the surveyed men felt the same way.
“Gendered identities have been really important from the beginning of the modern environmental movement,” says Martin Hultman, associate professor at Chalmers University of Technology. While Hultman makes clear that “within the category of men, there is also a broad span of different types of masculinities,” he notes that the environment and sustainability “has become both an ideological issue and an identity issue” with the denying or dismissing climate science increasingly taken up by far right groups to push their misogynistic agenda.
As climate change fuels conflicts around the world, women and girls become more susceptible to various forms of gender-based violence.
For example, researchers have discovered that some men might shy away from using a reusable shopping bag, recycling, or engaging in any eco-friendly actions that have been seen as “feminine,” according to a study published last year in the journal Sex Roles. A similar concern is well-documented in some men’s hesitance to embrace vegetarian or vegan diets.
Another study by Swim, also published last year in the journal Global Environmental Change, uncovered that men generally preferred arguments rooted in science and business, while they tended to associate “negative feminine traits” with men who argued on the basis of ethics and environmental justice. And it’s no surprise, then, that misogyny has also been shown to be a factor in climate denial. A 2014 paper in the International Journal for Masculinity Studies found that, “for climate sceptics, it was not the environment that was threatened; it was a certain kind of modern industrial society built and dominated by their form of masculinity.”
While it’s true that the research shows women to be more environmentally conscious than men, in the past, this gender gap was chalked up to differences in personality. Whether women are naturally inclined to care about the environment or are taught to do so, there’s evidence indicating that femininity and being “green” have become mentally linked (by both men and women). “It’s a mix of stereotypes being repeated which then exacerbates this polarization,” adds Le Masson.
This connection is partly what discourages some men from doing their part. What was once a practical issue with broad consensus on the facts has now morphed into an issue of personal identity. The challenge, as Hultman adds, is then “to not, ourselves, fall into the eco-gender gap.”
For Le Masson, there is a nuance in this gap that often gets overlooked. “It’s very easy for people to extract the research to say women are more affected by climate change, as opposed to saying that the research shows women in marginalized societies are more vulnerable to climate change.” In this case, the semantics are important.
Instances of domestic and sexual violence increase as temperatures rise. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry earlier this year found a 1°C increase in average annual temperature was connected to a rise of more than 6.3% in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence across three south Asian countries: India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Climate change acts as a “threat multiplier,” intensifying social, political, and economic tensions in vulnerable and conflict-ridden areas. And as climate change fuels conflicts around the world, women and girls become more susceptible to various forms of gender-based violence, including sexual violence linked to conflict, human trafficking, child marriage, and other forms of abuse.
“You really need to also change the culture and the power hierarchies and also the way in which we relate to nature and climate.”
Climate change and disasters also jeopardize the health of women and girls. They face challenges in accessing essential services and healthcare, and there are increased risks related to maternal and child health. With these issues in mind, it’s important to examine the context in which these gender inequalities exist and close the gap rather than driving it further apart.
“It really depends on the context, it depends on the roles of people,” says Le Masson. “That’s why it’s important to always nuance the statement that ‘women are more affected by climate change’ because it can be dividing.”
Research shows that 3.6 billion people, men and women alike, already live in areas highly susceptible to climate change. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from causes including undernutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress. If only 49.7% of the planet’s population pulls their weight to protect the planet, any progress to tackle these issues will only take twice as long.
Despite women bearing the brunt of the mental load in private and often being the global faces of climate activism in public, with women such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the U.S. and Greta Thunberg in Europe, when it comes to the decision-making bodies designing climate actions or drafting climate change policies, women remain largely underrepresented.
“Unfortunately, we’re still way behind parity in decision-making at the highest level,” says Le Masson. “Including in the climate negotiations sphere.” Climate-related projects and policies that involve women have proven to be more effective, according to the UNFCCC. A 2019 study found that increasing women’s representation in national parliaments leads to the adoption of more stringent climate change policies, resulting in lower emissions. At the local level, the participation of women in natural resource management is associated with better resource governance and conservation outcomes.
“Of course, it is important to continue to work with representation and to balance out imbalances in power positions,” adds Hultman. However research shows it’s not enough. “You really need to also change the culture and the power hierarchies and also the way in which we relate to nature and climate.”
Mother Nature has long been personified as a woman, from the Greek’s Gaia to Ancient Rome’s Terra Mater. Her care has consequently been left in the hands of only half of the population. If we are going to close this gap, it’s time to move beyond this image and admit that the climate crisis has no gender and the responsibility falls on us all to fix it.
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Evening Up the Eco Gender Gap
