---
title: "Women in climate change"
chunk: 3/15
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"
---

== Women working in climate change ==
There are a variety of ways to identify women who have made major contributions to climate change.  The first is the list of authors of the high level international assessments for the UN and other organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The second is to examine women who have been invited to join the editorial boards of climate change refereed journals. A third is to look at the membership of the global change committees of the International Council for Science (ICSU). And a fourth is to recognize women that are members of their National Academy of Sciences who work on climate change. Many of them are IPCC or other report authors, and also members of ICSU committees, members of their National Academy and other marks of accomplishment.
Seven cities around the world have appointed women as Chief Heat Officers (CHOs) to take action against extreme heat due to climate change.
In February 2024, the EIB Group established the Women Climate Leaders Network, bringing together 47 women leaders from the commercial sector from all 27 EU Member States, to collaborate on innovative business models and strategies to facilitate the low-carbon and green transition.
Women are statistically more likely to live in conditions of poverty in today's world. Women tend to  work within the household cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children. Women have a lack of access to resources as well as environmental services in comparison to the rest of the population. Despite these setbacks, there has been a push for women to get more involved in climate change activism. Many Indigenous communities have put more of an emphasis on passing environmental knowledge down through generations. This provides knowledge of the past and how to effectively go forward with more sustainable practices. There is a push to understand how genders are differently affected by climate change and use the various perspectives that are not always seen to initiate change. Overall there is a general push to push for more genders to be involved in bigger climate issues to see how best to attack issues.
Women in climate change have taken on many roles to help the fight against climate change in the field today. For example, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an Indigenous activist that is working in Chad. She is working to spread the word of the people actively fighting climate change today in Chad and educate people about their conditions. She is trying to spread the knowledge of indigenous people as their in-depth knowledge of the environment can help us adapt to the changes. She has won many awards for her work and has been working within the UN on indigenous issues as well as indigenous advocacy. Katharine Wilkinson is an educator around the country. She is working to educate people on climate change and the impacts that it is having on the Earth. She aims to create an encouraging positive environment for women to work within the climate movement. Katharine Wilkinson has worked on a book called the All We Can Save Project that brings together the voices of 60 women that are doing work within climate change on the ground today. She aims to bring in more voices of women in order to open up the climate change discussion to different perspectives as well as show the readers the ways that we can help to combat climate change together.

== Ecofeminism ==
Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism that sees environmentalism and the relationship between women and the earth as interlinked. According to Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974), ecofeminism relates the oppression and domination of all marginalized groups (women, people of color, children, the poor) to the oppression and domination of nature (animals, land, water, air, etc.).
Ecofeminism first came to be in the 1970s when there were major changes in policy in terms of sustainability and gender inequality. Ecofeminism work originates in peace movements, women’s health care, and women labor movements. Ecofeminists aim to show connection with nonhuman life. The Ecofeminists argue that patriarchy gives the view that men are ‘developed' and women and other underrepresented groups are ‘underdeveloped’ which normalizes the oppression of these ’underdeveloped’ groups. Ecofeminism aims to open up the woman view of the interconnected sense of self that women hold versus males that tend to be more disconnected. Adding women’s views within the work of climate change brings a different perspective that lacks within the current male dominated discussion of climate change.
Ecofeminism also aims to break stereotypes of women and the effects that climate change has on them. Women are devalued in our current society for their knowledge whereas men are praised for their intellect and reasoning. Women are greatly affected by climate change with things such as health and reproductive issues that come from the many hazardous pollutants within the environment. With this they have no voice within climate change discussions as they are seen as lesser. Ecofeminism works to provide a safe space for women to come together, share their stories, and work towards a more just green future for women.