Gendered Impacts of Climate Change
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World Bank, Washington, DC
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Climate change is one of the defining
challenges of our time. While the impacts of climate change
on people’s well-being can hardly be denied, it may not be
as obvious that the impacts could differ by gender. However,
as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, a shock can impact men
and women differently due to social norms and pre-existing
gender differences. This paper reviews the economic
literature linking weather shocks (such as floods, droughts,
and extreme temperatures, among others) and a large range of
outcomes (from endowments to economic opportunities and
agency). Men and women indeed have specific vulnerabilities
and exposures. Specific physiological vulnerabilities are
relatively minor: boys are more vulnerable to shocks in
utero and girls and women to heat. The biggest gendered
impacts are due to existing gaps and social responses to
shocks. In places with strong boy preferences, families
facing scarcity due to disasters are more likely to give
food and other resources to boys, take their daughters out
of school or marry them young, or withdraw women from
agricultural work so they focus on household chores. During
or after weather shocks, boys can also be taken out of
schools to be put at work and men working in agriculture are
often forced to migrate to find alternative sources of
income. Unless climate policy acknowledges and accounts for
these differences, climate change will remain an amplifier
of existing gender inequalities.
Palabras clave
CLIMATE CHANGE, GENDER AND CLIMATE CHANGE, HEALTH EFFECTS OF WEATHER SHOCKS, GENDERED EDUCATIONAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, GENDERED NORMS AND CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE SHOCKS AND LIVELIHOODS, WOMEN'S AGENCY, GENDERED VULNERABILITY TO WEATHER SHOCK