Women and Climate Justice

Educating women is key to a sustainable, regenerative future. Extreme weather events due to climate change disproportionately affect women and girls and their ability to perform their everyday tasks, which partly explains why some girls are forced to drop out of school. The tasks of collecting firewood and water, which traditionally fall to women and girls, are heavily affected by adverse climate change impacts, which force the women and girls to travel further from their homes to complete the tasks and provide for their families. In turn, the longer journeys increase their exposure to gender-based violence outside the home. The correlation between climate change and gender equality might at first seem hard to understand. But equality is essential to sustainability and we need to start recognizing the connections between gender equality and environmental sustainability.