As the world gets hotter and hotter, women\u2019s reproductive health and rights will suffer.<\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-ilelael.nitrocdn.com\/iArqSTQyOJCAcmCEoQrhCUIOjYnkEEmQ\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-9765048\/msmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288991361-1-1024x683.jpg\")
A woman looks at the raging flames as firefighters and locals battle a wildfire in Deliblatska Pescara (Deliblato Sands), Serbia, on August 9, 2026. Firefighters were battling wildfires across the Balkans as days of high temperatures and drought conditions continue to drive blazes in several countries. (Photo by Uros Arsic \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAs salient as extreme heat and wildfires have been this summer, an important dimension has been mostly absent from discussions of it: gender.<\/p>\n
The impacts of climate change are not gender-neutral. Heat affects different populations in different ways<\/a>. Climate vulnerability<\/a> depends on intersecting factors like age, income, occupation, disability, race, but also gender, which is often overlooked.<\/p>\nDisproportionate climate impacts on women are partly a matter of physiology. Pregnancy, for example, makes people more susceptible to heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses. Pregnancy increases metabolic<\/a> heat production and fluid needs, making it harder<\/a> for the body to regulate temperature and cool both the pregnant person and fetus. Every degree Celsius of heat exposure increases<\/a> the odds of preterm birth by 4 percent. Heat exposure has also been correlated<\/a> with lower birth weight, stillbirth and neonatal stress and mortality.<\/p>\nBut social and economic inequities women face also heighten their vulnerability to heat, increasing their heat exposure and worsening health outcomes. Women spend more time than men on unpaid<\/a> household work, affecting their earnings and long-term economic stability<\/a>. Women are more likely to head single-parent<\/a> households, experience poverty<\/a> and live alone<\/a> later in life. Energy costs are significantly<\/a> more likely to take up a greater percentage of their household income, making them less able to afford air conditioning or other cooling measures.<\/p>\nAccess to cooling is a new frontier of climate justice. To improve it, UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) recommends<\/a> subsidizing electricity or cooling devices for low income families, making cooling centers accessible and welcoming to women and collecting and analyzing currently disaggregated data on gender and heat impacts.<\/p>\nBut from the data we already have, it\u2019s predictable as the world gets hotter and hotter<\/a>, women\u2019s reproductive health and rights will suffer<\/a>, as gender inequality makes climate-related shocks harder to withstand, especially in places where governments ignore or even exacerbate their vulnerability.<\/p>\n\nProtecting women\u2026must be central to climate action, not peripheral.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In the U.S., Trump\u2019s administration hasn\u2019t just passively failed to address the climate-gender connection, it actively dismantled<\/a> the EPA Office of Research and Development that studied wildfires, drinking water, climate change and other health threats while at the same time gutting<\/a> the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reproductive health divisions and programs.<\/p>\nIn U.S. local and state jurisdictions, heat action plans may broadly<\/a> identify populations more at risk, but rarely incorporate gender-specific data, so they often don\u2019t acknowledge or plan for the increased risks women face during extreme heat events, ranging from more domestic violence<\/a> to higher mortality and morbidity<\/a>.<\/p>\nFor example, New York State\u2019s Extreme Heat Action Plan<\/a> has a woman drinking water on the cover, but mention\u2019s women only once, to note that pregnancy is a risk factor, while Los Angeles County\u2019s Heat Action Plan<\/a> never mentions women\u2019s health, reproductive health or pregnancy at all.\u00a0<\/p>\nBut other places offer models for incorporating gendered impacts into climate planning. In Ahmedabad in western India, for example, the city\u2019s Heat Action Plan partners with the grassroots women\u2019s organization Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) to offer heat insurance<\/a>. It compensates workers for income lost during extreme heat events, reducing the need to work in dangerous conditions and saving lives. MHT\u2019s Cool Roof Initiative installs heat-reflective roof<\/a> coatings in low-income homes.\u00a0That lowers indoor temperatures by 2 to 5 degrees Celsius and protects the women doing unpaid care work inside.<\/p>\nExtreme heat is already a major public health problem and it will get worse as the world warms. Protecting women, especially those with multiple factors of vulnerability, must be central to climate action, not peripheral. <\/p>\n
To save lives and uphold rights, government policies and heat action plans need to address the physiological, social and economic factors that put women at higher risk.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
As salient as extreme heat and wildfires have been this summer, an important dimension has been mostly absent from discussions of it: gender.<\/p>\n
The impacts of climate change are not gender-neutral. Heat affects different populations in different ways<\/a>. Climate vulnerability<\/a> depends on intersecting factors like age, income, occupation, disability, race, but also gender, which is often overlooked.<\/p>\n Disproportionate climate impacts on women are partly a matter of physiology. Pregnancy, for example, makes people more susceptible to heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses. Pregnancy increases metabolic<\/a> heat production and fluid needs, making it harder<\/a> for the body to regulate temperature and cool both the pregnant person and fetus. Every degree Celsius of heat exposure increases<\/a> the odds of preterm birth by 4 percent. Heat exposure has also been correlated<\/a> with lower birth weight, stillbirth and neonatal stress and mortality.<\/p>\n But social and economic inequities women face also heighten their vulnerability to heat, increasing their heat exposure and worsening health outcomes. Women spend more time than men on unpaid<\/a> household work, affecting their earnings and long-term economic stability<\/a>. Women are more likely to head single-parent<\/a> households, experience poverty<\/a> and live alone<\/a> later in life. Energy costs are significantly<\/a> more likely to take up a greater percentage of their household income, making them less able to afford air conditioning or other cooling measures.<\/p>\n Access to cooling is a new frontier of climate justice. To improve it, UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) recommends<\/a> subsidizing electricity or cooling devices for low income families, making cooling centers accessible and welcoming to women and collecting and analyzing currently disaggregated data on gender and heat impacts.<\/p>\n But from the data we already have, it\u2019s predictable as the world gets hotter and hotter<\/a>, women\u2019s reproductive health and rights will suffer<\/a>, as gender inequality makes climate-related shocks harder to withstand, especially in places where governments ignore or even exacerbate their vulnerability.<\/p>\n Protecting women\u2026must be central to climate action, not peripheral.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In the U.S., Trump\u2019s administration hasn\u2019t just passively failed to address the climate-gender connection, it actively dismantled<\/a> the EPA Office of Research and Development that studied wildfires, drinking water, climate change and other health threats while at the same time gutting<\/a> the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reproductive health divisions and programs.<\/p>\n In U.S. local and state jurisdictions, heat action plans may broadly<\/a> identify populations more at risk, but rarely incorporate gender-specific data, so they often don\u2019t acknowledge or plan for the increased risks women face during extreme heat events, ranging from more domestic violence<\/a> to higher mortality and morbidity<\/a>.<\/p>\n For example, New York State\u2019s Extreme Heat Action Plan<\/a> has a woman drinking water on the cover, but mention\u2019s women only once, to note that pregnancy is a risk factor, while Los Angeles County\u2019s Heat Action Plan<\/a> never mentions women\u2019s health, reproductive health or pregnancy at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n But other places offer models for incorporating gendered impacts into climate planning. In Ahmedabad in western India, for example, the city\u2019s Heat Action Plan partners with the grassroots women\u2019s organization Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) to offer heat insurance<\/a>. It compensates workers for income lost during extreme heat events, reducing the need to work in dangerous conditions and saving lives. MHT\u2019s Cool Roof Initiative installs heat-reflective roof<\/a> coatings in low-income homes.\u00a0That lowers indoor temperatures by 2 to 5 degrees Celsius and protects the women doing unpaid care work inside.<\/p>\n Extreme heat is already a major public health problem and it will get worse as the world warms. Protecting women, especially those with multiple factors of vulnerability, must be central to climate action, not peripheral. <\/p>\n To save lives and uphold rights, government policies and heat action plans need to address the physiological, social and economic factors that put women at higher risk.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n