Many dismiss the notion that climate change is a feminist issue. For them, it sounds like a category error. Climate change, after all, is a universal environmental crisis—a matter of science and economics affecting everyone uniformly. Feminism, they argue, is a social movement for gender equality. The two have nothing to do with each other.
This perspective is a profound oversimplification. It overlooks the deeply rooted gender inequalities that permeate both the causes and consequences of our warming planet. Climate change is a threat multiplier that exacerbates existing inequalities, making it one of the most pressing feminist issues of our time.
We often portray climate change as a great equalizer, a storm that hits everyone. But this is a dangerous myth. The repercussions are not borne uniformly. They fall disproportionately on women and children, particularly in regions where social structure, economic vulnerability, and poor governance are already daily realities.
In Pakistan and across the Global South, women form a significant portion of the agricultural workforce, yet they rarely own the land they till or have equal access to credit, training, and technology. When floods and landslides wash away crops and orchards, it is these women who are left with no safety net, their livelihoods erased and their families’ food security threatened.
This economic precarity fuels a more insidious consequence: displacement and violence. As affected communities migrate in search of shelter, water, food, or work, women and girls face heightened risks of trafficking, exploitation, and gender-based violence in refugee camps and informal settlements. A climate disaster exploits gender inequality, turning a crisis into a catastrophe for those with the least power.
If the consequences fall disproportionately on women, decision-making power remains overwhelmingly in the hands of men. From global platforms to national forums, corporate to NGO offices, climate governance is a male-dominated arena. This is a systemic failure. When the perspectives and expertise of half the population are absent from the discourse, the solutions devised will inevitably be incomplete.
Globally, women are consistently underrepresented in climate negotiations and leadership roles. At international forums like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conferences, their participation has historically been limited, with women from climate-vulnerable countries often absent from high-level discussions despite their firsthand knowledge. This omission stems from broader societal norms where women’s unpaid care responsibilities impede their involvement in public spheres. In our contexts, this is even more worrisome.
In South Asia, national climate adaptation policies often neglect gender-specific needs. Pakistan’s National Climate Change Policy 2021 has been criticised for insufficient integration of women’s voices, leading to strategies that prioritise infrastructure over social equity. This male-dominated environment not only marginalises women but undermines effective climate action.
Climate change intensifies gender disparities in poverty, health, and security.
The outcomes of these decisions fall heavily on women and children. Climate change intensifies gender disparities in poverty, health, and security. Projections indicate that by 2050, climate change could push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty worldwide, with 16 million more in extreme poverty compared to men and boys.
In Pakistan, this dynamic plays out with brutal clarity. Deeply entrenched patriarchal norms dictate that women are primary managers of household water and energy. In mountainous regions where clean tap water is unavailable, women and girls walk for miles to fetch the commodity, sacrificing their time, education, and safety. When floods devastate rural communities, women are often the last to be evacuated, waiting for male relatives or unable to swim. These are predictable outcomes of a system that ignores gender.
In developing countries, cultural norms assign women primary roles in resource collection, food production, and family care. These tasks are directly disrupted by environmental degradation. For children, impacts are intergenerational: malnutrition from crop failures affects pregnant women, leading to stunted growth in children, while extreme weather increases child mortality among the poor. This vulnerability is not natural but socially constructed, rooted in patriarchal systems that devalue women’s labour and limit their agency.
Pakistan, one of the most climate-vulnerable countries, has experienced devastating floods annually over the last five years. The 2022 floods displaced millions and left nearly 650,000 pregnant women without access to healthcare, forcing many to give birth in unsafe conditions. Women and girls, who constitute about 80% of those displaced by climate events globally, face heightened risks of gender-based violence in temporary shelters.
In rural Punjab and Sindh, women are responsible for fetching water—a task made harder by increasing scarcity from glacial melt and erratic monsoons—leading to physical strain and time poverty that curtails education and economic opportunities for girls. In Bangladesh’s flood-prone regions, women often eat last and least during food shortages, resulting in higher malnutrition rates among mothers and children.
Another argument that men are “more active” and, therefore, better equipped for survival. In Pakistan’s rural landscapes, masculinity is constructed outdoors. Men develop lifesaving survival skills—climbing trees, swimming rivers, navigating public spaces. When disaster strikes, this activeness becomes a survival skill. These daily freedoms are covert training for survival.
In contrast, women are confined by a patriarchal design of honor that demands they stay inside. Their mobility is a tightly controlled family resource. A woman’s dignity, and by extension her family’s so-called honour, is intertwined with her isolation. The catastrophic consequence: when threat comes, many women cannot leave without male support. They wait for fathers, husbands, or brothers to rescue them—a delay that can mean the difference between life and death.
The fight for climate justice is inextricably linked to the fight for gender equality.
To confront the climate crisis, we must adopt a feminist lens. This is not about replacing one struggle with another or creating a hierarchy of victims. It is about recognizing that we cannot solve a problem if we do not understand its full dimensions. A feminist approach means ensuring women are not just victims but leaders and agents of change, including their voices in policy-making, financing their climate-resilient initiatives, and dismantling the legal and social barriers that keep them vulnerable.
An environmentalism that ignores gender is a ship sailing with a broken compass. It may have good intentions, but it is destined to miss the most critical hazards. The fight for climate justice is inextricably linked to the fight for gender equality. Until we recognize that, our efforts to save the planet will remain incomplete—and the most vulnerable among us will continue to pay the highest price.
We as a nation and as a society must understand that feminism is not peripheral to climate action. It is essential to it.
Wazir Aftab Hussain is a faculty member at the University of Baltistan. He writes about social and policy issues. He completed his master’s in media and communication from Brunel University London.
The High Asia Herald is a member of High Asia Media Group — a window to High Asia and Central Asia