This summer, the direct impacts of global warming dominated national discourse. But amidst endless debate about North Sea oil and hosepipe bans, there was an angle missing: the fact that women, who make up 51% of Scotland’s population, will feel the impacts of climate change sooner and more severely.
There is a definitive gap in the data and reporting of climate change, both on a national and global scale. This gap is gendered.
Evidence demonstrates that there is a particular threat posed to the health, safety, security, and lives of women and girls as a direct result of climate related factors, and additionally through the subsequent amplification of pre-existing social and economic circumstances unique to women.
As socialists, marxists, and feminists, we must acknowledge this imbalance and use it to consciously inform our climate and environmental policy moving forward.
For the purpose of this article, I will be mentioning examples from natural disasters throughout modern history to illustrate the devastating consequences of global warming based on factors relating to gender. Whilst these will be evaluated in a Scottish context, from an internationalist perspective it is important to understand that the impacts have, and will continue to be, felt more severely in the Global South.
In a government press release last week, the department for environmental, food, and rural affairs reported that most of England’s reservoirs are now classed as ‘notably or exceptionally low’ after a continually dry September. This comes alongside reporting that warns that the majority of the UK’s essential food supply is grown in areas of England most at risk of drought. Based on analysis from Rebalance Earth, 81% of fresh produce is concentrated in parts of the country already experiencing water stress.
Globally, women depend more on natural resources, yet are less likely to have access to them. As women do the majority of unpaid labour in many regions, they often bear the responsibility of securing food, water, and fuel for their families. When faced with food insecurity and shortage, women are the ones more likely to go hungry.
Research by The Poverty Alliance and Scottish Women’s Budget Group found that, in their role as poverty managers in the home, women were cutting back on food in order to feed their children. In 2023/24, adults in single parent households in Scotland were the most likely group to have reported eating less due to a lack of money in the last 12 months (27%). 9 out of 10 single parent families in Scotland are headed by women.
However, the gendered impact of the climate crisis isn’t just a material matter. Women are more vulnerable to harm, both physical and mental, as a result of global warming.
On Boxing Day in 2004, a massive undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, triggered a series of deadly tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. The coast of Thailand was devastated, tens of thousands were killed in Indonesia, two hundred thousand were left homeless in Sri Lanka, and casualties were recorded as far as Somalia, where three hundred people died as a result. A report published by Oxfam recorded that in the worst affected areas women made up 80% of those killed. Overall up to four times as many women died as a result of the tsunami as men.
A primary reason for this harrowing statistic was socialisation. Many men were away from home; at work, or out fishing and so had greater opportunity to flee. The women, however, would have been in their houses, looking after family; efforts to save their children would have slowed them down. In Sri Lanka, researchers found very few women had been taught to climb trees or to swim.
Despite King’s College London finding that 56% of men believing women’s equality has gone far enough in Britain. The rise of the far right and incel culture, as well as the return of conversations about “the family” demonstrate that we have our own problem of socialisation and a lack of comprehensive gender and relationship education here in Scotland.
As the country continues to heat up and extreme weather events become more frequent, pre-existing social and economic stresses that already fuel violence against women and girls are intensified. In 2025, a UN Spotlight brief found that there is a 28% increase in femicides during heatwaves, and it is predicted that climate change could be linked to one in every ten cases of intimate partner violence by the end of the century.
Climate change is scarcely mentioned in conversations about immigration and displacement, but it is predicted that by 2050 the estimated number of environmental migrants could range from anywhere from 25 million to 1 billion. Global warming increases the frequency of sudden-onset disasters and exacerbates the impact of gradual processes such as drought. The movement of people is and will continue to be affected by environmental degradation.
Displacement is an issue that disproportionately impacts women. In 2022, The Office of The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that an estimated 80% of climate migrants are women. Displaced women are more vulnerable to trafficking, modern slavery, and forced marriage.
In highlighting the disproportionate impact climate change has, and will continue to have, on women, I hope that socialists who read this will go on to put feminist thinking front and centre in their efforts to combat environmental catastrophe.
