Environment

As climate change, population growth, and urbanization march forward, women will feel their impact in disproportionate and unforeseen ways. Deeply rooted gender inequality leaves women more vulnerable to natural disasters: when resources are scarce, women are less likely to be able to access the health care, food, or even information they need to survive. A recent report from the nonprofit Plan U.K. and the British Department for International Development found that young women accounted for 80 percent of deaths from the 2004 tsunami in Asia.

Women’s workloads may soar as temperatures rise. In most developing countries, growing food and fetching water is a woman’s job. (In South Africa, women collectively walk 12.8 million kilometers every day to fetch water for their households—that’s the equivalent of walking to the moon and back 16 times per day.) As the world’s clean-water sources slowly decline, women’s quality of life will likely suffer.

Yet women’s hands-on relationship with their environment also means they have the potential to teach us about careful land and resource management. Women have unique insight into growing techniques, healing plants, and adapting to variations in weather and climate. Capitalizing on this know-how benefits everyone.