The inequalities that women and the LGBTQIA+ community already face mean that they are disproportionately exposed to the effects of climate change. These effects have serious direct or indirect consequences for the health of women and sexual and gender minorities. This combined gender, health and climate perspective demonstrates the importance of putting the principles of equality and inclusion into practice to address today’s challenges.
In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir wrote a sentence that would become famous: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”.[1]Simone De Beauvoir, The Second Sex. Trans. Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. Random House: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Her entire oeuvre challenges the assignment of women and men to a particular sex at birth, and suggests that there is a distinction between innate biological sex and socially acquired sex, which would become known as “gender”. Gender is largely constructed through a process of differential socialisation (for example, giving a doll’s tea set to a little girl and a car to a little boy), generating stereotypes which influence our representations (women do the cooking and men like working with machines). Gender is therefore distinguished from sex through the norms, roles and rights to which it refers. Beyond Simone de Beauvoir’s thinking, this deconstruction has gradually led to the emergence of a multitude of gender identities and sexual orientations which are now grouped together under the acronym LGBTQIA+.[2]LGBTQIA+: Lesbian (women who are attracted to women), Gay (men who are attracted to men), Bisexual (people who are attracted to more than one gender), Transgender (people who do not have the same … Continue reading Like ecofeminism, which establishes a link between the domination of nature by humans and the domination of women by men, the cause of the LGBTQIA+ community shares many challenges with that of women.[3]Stella Reminy-Elizor, Julia Ricci et Héloïse Versavel, sous la direction de Déborah Rouach et Alice Apostoly, La politique étrangère féministe pour atteindre les objectifs de développement … Continue reading It is therefore reasonable to argue that their rights should be defended on a common front.
Climate change and vulnerability
Initiated by the advent of non-governmental organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF, 1961) and Greenpeace (1971), but also by scientific work such as the March 1972 report The Limits to Growth,[4]Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgens Randers et al., The Limits to Growth, 2 March 1972. and the first Earth Summit in Stockholm three months later, the last sixty years have been marked by growing awareness of environmental issues. Nonetheless, the link between climate changes,[5]Here, the use of the plural form of “change” (it is also used in the singular) helps to highlight the multiple components and consequences of climate change. This is reflected, for example, in … Continue reading health, women, and sexual and gender minorities is much more recent. In 2020, the International Committee of the Red Cross noted that, in situations of armed conflict, climate change exacerbates the vulnerability of the most disadvantaged social classes – especially women – thereby threatening their health.[6]Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, When rain turns to dust, July 2020, https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/4487-when-rain-turns-dust Even though political action and awareness have made progress in recent decades, they now seem to have come to a standstill, and may even be on the wane. Donald Trump’s re-election as President of the United States (US) in January 2025 ushered in a period of major uncertainty about the future of the fight against the effects of climate change and about inclusivity. Caught between the dire consequences of global warming and acute crises triggered by natural disasters, women and the LGBTQIA+ community find themselves centre stage in a climate play whose curtain seems to be falling.
“Even though climate change affects everyone, it does not affect all human beings in the same way.”
Even though climate change affects everyone, it does not affect all human beings in the same way. It comes as no surprise to learn that the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has confirmed that it is society’s most vulnerable and marginalised people who will be affected the most.[7]Joern Birkmann, Emma Liwenga, Rajiv Pandey et al., “Poverty, Livelihoods and Sustainable Development” in Hans Otto Pörtner, Debra C. Roberts, Melinda M.B. Tignor et al.(eds.), Climate Change … Continue reading In many countries, however, women are still largely unequal when compared to men: less access to education, greater responsibility in domestic and family duties, limited rights to private property, exclusion from decision-making, and reduced mobility.[8]UN Women and UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: the Gender Snapshot 2024, 2024, … Continue reading These purely gender-based differentiations result in women’s disproportionate vulnerability to the effects of climate change, and in their reduced capacity to adapt to it. The same is true for people with a sexual orientation or gender identity that differs from the social norm. In times of crisis, for example, the LGBTQIA+ community may be exposed to psychological, physical or sexual violence, such as the discrimination they faced in access to shelters and emergency aid, particularly in religious communities, during Hurricane Katrina in the US in 2005.[9]Leo Goldsmith and Michelle L. Bell, “Queering environmental justice: unequal environmental health burden on the LGBTQ+ community”, American journal of public health, vol. 112, no. 1, January … Continue reading Transgender women, for example, have been refused access to the female toilets. In Haiti, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the SEROvie Foundation have even documented cases of rape targeting homosexuals and transgender people in the camps for internally displaced persons set up after the earthquake in 2010.[10] IGLHRC et SEROvie, The Impact of the Earthquake, and Relief and Recovery Programs on Haitian LGBT People, 2011. In other words, climate change exacerbates pre-existing inequalities and risks for women and minorities.
Gender, health and climate perspectives
Many aspects of women’s health and that of sexual and gender minorities are affected by climate change. On the one hand, physiology comes into play – older women, for example, are more susceptible to extreme heat as they generally perspire less than men.[11]Mireille A. Folkerts, Peter Bröder, W. J. Wouter Botzen et al., “Sex differences in temperature-related all-cause mortality in the Netherlands”, International Archive of Occupational and … Continue reading On the other hand, factors linked to behaviour patterns or gendered social roles, such as the discriminatory distribution of domestic duties, increase risks. Nutritional or musculoskeletal problems may arise as the result of new working practices assigned to women, especially in regions most prone to drought: upheaval in agriculture, food insecurity with unequal sharing of meals in families, or water depletion.[12]World Health Organization, Gender, Climate Change and Health, 2014, https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/144781
“According to a report by Human Rights Watch, young girls in Bangladesh are at greater risk of forced marriage as climate disasters and their economic impact on families intensify.”
Women and girls in the driest countries, for example, may have to carry 100 litres of water every day for a family of five, and they are the first to drop out of school for that reason.[13]Nicholas Rees, Margaretha Barkhof, Jan Burdziej et al., The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index, United Nations Children’s Fund, August … Continue reading According to a report by Human Rights Watch, young girls in Bangladesh are at greater risk of forced marriage as climate disasters and their economic impact on families intensify.[14]Human Rights Watch, Marry Before Your House is Swept Away: Child Marriage in Bangladesh, June 2015, https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/pdf/bangladesh0615_web.pdf
In more general terms, climate change is a risk factor for sexual health. Sexual and gender-based violence is on the increase, especially – but not exclusively – during crises.[15]Julia Rothschild and Elizabeth Haase, “Women’s mental health and climate change Part II: Socioeconomic stresses of climate change and eco-anxiety for women and their children”, International … Continue reading A study carried out in South Asia in 2023 showed that the increase in temperatures alone has led to an increase in domestic violence.[16]Yixiang Zhu, Cheng He, Michelle Bell et al., “Association of ambient temperature with the prevalence of intimate partner violence among partnered women in low – and middle-income South Asian … Continue reading In reproductive health, climate change threatens to boost the propagation of certain infections, such as vector-borne diseases (malaria, dengue, Zika etc.),[17]WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, HRP, Protecting maternal, newborn and child health from the impacts of climate change – A call for action, 21 November 2023, … Continue reading which are particularly dangerous for pregnant women. A 2020 study in the US even revealed the direct effects that air pollution and global warming have on maternal and foetal health, with a risk of low birth weight or even premature birth.[18]Bruce Bekkar, Susan Pacheco, Rupa Basu et al., “Association of air pollution and heat exposure with preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth in the US: A systematic review”, Journal of the … Continue reading According to a report by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF),[19]International Planned Parenthood Federation, The Climate Crisis and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, 1 March 2021, … Continue reading menstrual insecurity also greatly increases in areas affected by climate change. The difficulty of providing an appropriate, hygienic and worthy environment (lack of clean water, lack of sanitary facilities, etc.) thereby brings many health problems, both physical and mental. Lastly, the IPPF is keeping a close eye on the ethical and individual freedom issues raised by plans to regulate birth rates. Although population growth is now one of the challenges of climate change, it is still unthinkable to associate access to contraception with a strategy to protect the environment, as this would instrumentalise women’s bodies.
Access to care is another new addition to the list of gendered climate challenges. In Niger, for example, unmarried women who become pregnant from rape fear being stigmatised when they seek treatment, or being denounced if they are migrants.[20]UN Women, Rapid Assessment of the Situations of Women Migrating From, Into and Through Niger, June 2021, … Continue reading The same is true for the LGBTQIA+ community. More generally, when we compare countries where freedom of sexual orientation is scorned[21]Equaldex, LGBT Equality index – The most LGBT-Friendly Countries in the World, https://www.equaldex. com/equality-index with those that are the most vulnerable and least prepared for climate change,[22]Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, Country ranking, 24 August 2024, https://gain.nd.edu/assets/581554/nd_gain_countryindex_technicalreport_2024.pdf we find that the most repressive countries are often the most exposed to environmental crises: the future is uncertain for the minorities that live there.
With regard to mental health, Australian researchers showed, in 2021, that anxiety caused by environmental risks is a phenomenon to which women are, on average, more vulnerable than men.[23]Yumiko Coffey, Navjot Bhullar, Joanne Durkin et al., “Understanding ecoanxiety: A systematic scoping review of current literature and identified knowledge gaps” The Journal of Climate Change and … Continue reading This eco-anxiety adds to the mental load they already bear, such as managing children and household duties. This approach to mental health is universal: although women living in Western countries are less exposed to certain constraints, they are largely exposed to a mental load related to ecology. In France, for example, the French governmental agency for ecological transition (Agence de la transition écologique) confirmed, in a 2025 study, that “women are, on average, more eco-anxious … than men … and than ‘other genders’”.[24] Pierre-Éric Sutter, Léonie Messmer et Sylvie Chamberlin, Éco-anxiété en France (étude 2025), Agence de la transition écologique, 10 mars 2025.
Addressing the challenges
“The presence of women in national parliaments can even lead to a reduction in polluting emissions as a result of more stringent climate-change policies.”
Women have particular expertise in environmental matters because of their social roles. According to one study, the presence of women in national parliaments can even lead to a reduction in polluting emissions as a result of more stringent climate-change policies.[25]Astghik Mavisakalyan et Yashar Tarverdi, “Gender and climate change: Do female parliamentarians make a difference?”, European Journal of Political Economy, vol. 56, January 2019, pp. 151–164. Yet they are still excluded from decision-making in health and environmental protection. According to a 2019 WHO analysis of 104 countries, women accounted for 70% of workers in the health and social sector.[26] Mathieu Boniol, Michelle McIsaac, Lihui Xu et al., Équité femmes-hommes parmi les personnels de santé : une analyse de 104 pays, Organisation mondiale de la Santé, mars 2019, … Continue reading However, they were paid 28% less than men, largely because of gender-based discrimination, with limited access to senior positions, and were under-represented among doctors, with more women exercising paramedical professions such as nursing. Paradoxically, an American study that analysed the fate of nearly 800,000 patients between 2016 and 2019, shows that those treated by female doctors had lower mortality and readmission rates.[27] Atsushi Miyawaki, Anupam B Jena, Lisa S Rotenstein et al., “Comparison of hospital mortality and readmission rates by physician and patient sex”, Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 177, no °5, … Continue reading
The interactions between gender, health and climate change provide valuable insights into both public and global health. These interactions are also part of the systemic approach of the “One Health” concept,[28]Davide Ziveri, Isabelle Bolon and Rafael Ruiz de Castañeda, “One Health and Planetary Health in Humanitarian Settings”, Humanitarian Alternatives, no. 28, March 2025, pp. 50–63, … Continue reading which aims to highlight the interdependence between human, animal and ecosystem health. Although a great deal of research is now being carried out in this area, many humanitarian and scientific challenges remain. Health data for the LGBTQIA+ community are still sorely lacking.[29]Anne-Sophie Grenouilleau-Albertini, Pierre Liot, Ariane Sachs et al., « Collecter des données pour la santé des populations LGBTI : pourquoi, comment, avec qui ? », Santé Publique, vol. 34, HS … Continue reading This gap in understanding their specific needs – combined with their marginalisation – prevents an appropriate response to the challenges of the climate crisis. Worse still, shortly after the Trump administration returned to power in the US amid climate scepticism and the war on woke, strong censorship was applied to scientific research, particularly in the fields of gender, inclusivity, diversity and climate change. It was accompanied by the US’s withdrawal from the WHO and a freeze on funding earmarked for development and humanitarian programmes, despite the fact that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) had drawn up an ambitious “Climate Strategy 2022–2030”.[30]United States Agency for International Development, Climate Strategy 2022–2030, April 2022, https://reliefweb.int/report/world/usaid-climate-strategy-2022-2030 With $150 billion of funding, it included major consideration of gender and “marginalised groups”, including women and the LGBTQIA+ community. Many countries have followed, or anticipated, this trend, whether in terms of ideology – illiberal democracies, for example Javier Milei’s Argentina[31]Javier Milei, “Davos 2025: Special address by Javier Milei, President of Argentina”, World economic forum, 23 January 2025, … Continue reading – or funding, with official development assistance falling internationally for the first time in six years (-7.1% in 2024 compared to 2023).[32]OECD Press Release , International Aid Falls in 2024 for the First Time in Six Years, Says OECD, 16 April 2025, … Continue reading
In April 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against Switzerland for failing to protect its population in the face of climate change.[33]Le Monde with AFP, « Inaction climatique : la Suisse condamnée par la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme, une première pour un État », Le Monde, 9 avril 2024. While this is not the first time a state has been accused of failing to take environmental action, this verdict is deemed historic for its international legal scale and its implications for the infringement of human rights. Once again, it paves the way for strengthening global climate justice. International law, for example, does not currently recognise “climate refugees”, who, given the lack of statistics, “seem” to be mostly women and girls. UNICEF even considers that they could account for 80% of people forced to move because of climate change.[34]Nicholas Rees, Margaretha Barkhof, Jan Burdziej et al., The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis…, op. cit.
“The gender, health and climate perspective must lead us to a universal and interconnected vision of global challenges.”
The gender, health and climate perspective must lead us to a universal and interconnected vision of global challenges. There is an urgent need to include women and sexual and gender minorities in the international governance of climate change, to allow them to take the lead, and to ensure that the progress made is sustainable to avoid the conservative backlashes that occur when progress has been made in women’s and minority rights.
This article reflects the views of the author and not of the organisation he works for.
Picture credits: Richard Crombez
