---
title: "Women in climate change"
chunk: 1/15
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_climate_change"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:51:30.301743+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The contributions of women in climate change have received increasing attention in the early 21st century. Feedback from women and the issues faced by women have been described as "imperative" by the United Nations and "critical" by the Population Reference Bureau.  A report by the World Health Organization concluded that incorporating gender-based analysis would "provide more effective climate change mitigation and adaptation."
Many studies have documented the gender gap in science and investigated why women are not included or represented, particularly at higher levels of research. Despite significant progress, female scientists continue to endure discrimination, unequal pay, and funding inequities, according to a special report published in the journal Nature in 2013. It also states that 70 percent of men and women around the world regard science as a male endeavor. Women encounter hurdles due to their family obligations, and they are underrepresented in publications and citations.

== Overview ==
 

Women have made major contributions to climate change research and policy and to broader analysis of global environmental issues.  They include many women scientists as well as policy makers and activists. Women researchers have made significant contributions to major scientific assessments such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and are reasonably well represented on key global change committees of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and US National Academy of Sciences.  Women have played important leadership roles in international climate policy. For example, Christiana Figueres leads the international climate negotiations as the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and former Irish President Mary Robinson is the UN Special Envoy on Climate Change. 
Susan Solomon chaired the climate science working group 1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment in 2007.

== Underrepresentation of women in science ==

Women are generally underrepresented in science and have faced many barriers to their success and recognition. Following the scientific revolution in the 17th century European women became involved in observational science, including astronomy, natural history and weather observations although many universities would not admit women until the late 19th century.
The latest report from the US National Science Foundation shows that while women are now earning half of the undergraduate degrees in science and engineering, most of these are in the biosciences (especially pre-med) compared to physics, computer sciences and engineering (20%). In terms of doctorates, women are also only 20% of the engineering and physics PhDs. Although the proportion of women full professors in the US has doubled since 1993 women occupy less than 1/4 of senior faculty positions in science and engineering and women earn less than men at the same level.
It has been noted that women of color, indigenous women and women from the global south are even more likely to be overlooked, to be poorly represented in the academy and leadership.  This is associated with a legacy of discrimination, lack of educational opportunities, language barriers, and a lack of effort to identify and cite them.

== Women in climate change disciplines ==
Women are underrepresented in key disciplines for the study of climate change.  For example, women are a minority in the earth sciences where surveys reveal that less than 20% of meteorologists and geoscientists are women.  A recent analysis of US atmospheric science doctoral programs reveals that women were 17% of tenure track and tenured faculty, with even smaller proportions at higher rank,  and 53% of departments had two or fewer women faculty.  Women are slightly better represented in the ecological sciences.  One study reports that women are 55% of graduate students in ecology but only 1/3 of tenured faculty are women and that 3/4 of the articles in the flagship international journal - Ecology - are written by men. Women received proportionally less research funding and were less likely to be cited by their colleagues. Women members of the Ecological Society of America increased from 23% in 1992 to 37% in 2010.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization publishes data on women in science worldwide. Overall women are better represented as a share of total scientific researchers in Latin America, Oceania and Europe (30%+) and least in Asia (19%).