Climate Action
Why Women Matter In A Warming World
August 26, 2025
Women’s Equality Day commemorates the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 105 years ago, giving millions of U.S. women the right to vote. But the holiday isn’t just about looking back on this historic win. It’s about looking forward and recognizing where the fight for equality is still unfolding.
The battle we face today is a daunting one: climate change. And just like the suffrage movement, the fight for climate justice is all about representation, survival and having a voice. As the crisis grows, it is clear that those most impacted and those with a voice in its solutions remain unequal.
A Fight for Representation
The women’s suffrage movement wasn’t only about gaining access to the ballot box, but, like most women’s rights movements throughout history, was a fight for access and inclusion into spaces where decisions are being made, whether it’s a voting booth or a meeting room.
The same questions of power and who has access to it define the climate crisis today. Humans are facing a crisis that affects all of us. Still, just like in the 20th century, women — especially those in marginalized communities — are excluded from making decisions about their futures, and the stakes of exclusion are higher than ever as climate change becomes more and more dangerous.
Climate change Affects As All: But Not Equally
Instead, it hits those who are already marginalized much harder. Worldwide, women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die from extreme weather disasters, which global warming makes stronger and more frequent.
An estimated four out of every five people displaced by the impacts of climate change are women and girls. U.S. women are more likely to live in poverty, earn less money, and spend more time doing household work and caring for children than men, and are therefore far more vulnerable to the disasters climate change brings, including increased utility costs, heatwaves, or housing insecurity after hurricanes or floods.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, women, particularly low-income mothers, were the hardest hit in terms of being displaced and accessing aid. Before the storm, women represented the majority of the residents in New Orleans’ public housing, and over 83 percent of the city’s low-income single women were displaced and unable to return home after the storm.
Disparities like this were not unique to Hurricane Katrina. They were echoed in climate disasters like the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires, where, similar to other wildfires, women were more likely to suffer from post-disaster poverty, were at greater risk when evacuation orders were issued, and pregnant women faced heightened health risks from smoke exposure.
However, wildfire responses tend to broadly focus on infrastructure and resource distribution instead of addressing the specific needs of women, and the 2025 L.A. fire was no exception.
Despite bearing the brunt of its impacts, women, who make up over half of the U.S. population, remain underrepresented in every major sector of climate decision-making. Women only make up 28 percent of the 119th U.S. Congress. In the energy industry, a sector which is highly relevant to the climate crisis, women make up just 25 percent of the workforce and 13 percent of senior leadership roles.
Representation Matters
Research shows a clear correlation between women in leadership positions and positive climate action. For example, studies have found that countries with higher proportions of women in government are more likely to have more stringent climate policies and ratify international environmental treaties, and in the business sector, gender-diverse firms invest more in climate policies and tend to have better climate reporting.
Who is represented in positions of power has a significant impact on the actions taken, shaping which communities are protected and invested in, how disaster relief is distributed, and whether current policies meet the needs of vulnerable people. Women’s exclusion from climate policy-making limits the possibility of new, innovative solutions, and can lead to gender-blind policies that either don’t address the unique impact of climate change on women, or that even exacerbate that impact and worsen its effects.
Conversely, climate policies crafted by women or shaped with gender in mind tend to be more equitable. Shaping climate plans through the lens of gender by incorporating disaggregated gender data, ensuring women participate in planning, and tailoring responses to climate disasters to meet the unique needs of women leads to more effective solutions. Leaving women out of these conversations leads to entire communities being that much more vulnerable.
Women Leading the Way
Ensuring women are on the front lines in the fight against climate change isn’t just an important step for gender equality, but could be the key to environmental action.
Across the country and the world, women are already spearheading the cause. From young climate activists and grassroots organizers to scientists, farmers, and legislators, women are fighting for a more just and sustainable future.
Take Laurene Allen, the woman who protected thousands of families from a toxic chemical crisis in New England and campaigned so hard that she spearheaded the effort that led to New Hampshire becoming a frontrunner in state PFAS regulations. Or Nalleli Cobo, who, at 19, successfully led a coalition to shut down a toxic oil-drilling site in her community.
Their leadership, like that of U.S. suffragists over 100 years ago, is an act of resistance.
Recognizing that the fight for the climate and the fight for women’s rights are intrinsically interlinked is a crucial step for women and the planet: justice in one area reinforces justice in the other.
This Women’s Equality Day, we remember the past while continuing to mobilize for our future. Get started by joining the movement today.
If you care about the environment, and are in the U.S., we need your voice. Add your name to our public comments on the EPA’s intentions to gut the agency’s ability to regulate pollution due to climate change, also known as the Endangerment Finding.
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