Climate Change and Women’s Health: Risks and Opportunities

Climate change impacts on health – including increased exposures to heat, poor air quality, extreme weather events, altered vector-borne disease transmission, reduced water quality, and decreased food security – affect men and women differently, depending on local geographic and socioeconomic factors. As a result of this differential impact, climate change threatens to widen existing gender-based health disparities, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Gender differences in health impacts are mediated through socioeconomic, cultural, and physiologic factors. Therefore, policy action targeted toward these factors, which are often modifiable, can decrease negative health outcomes. The integration of a gendered perspective into existing climate, development, and disaster risk reduction policy frameworks requires improvement in data acquisition, monitoring of gender-specific targets, coordination between sectors and equitable stakeholder engagement.