Gender and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies
Summary
Climate change adaptation strategies must account for the differentiated roles, responsibilities and vulnerabilities experienced by people of diverse genders. Women often possess specialised knowledge of natural resources, food preparation and household water management, yet structural barriers and entrenched norms can limit their access to land, finance and decision-making forums. Men and women also encounter distinct livelihood pressures and mobility constraints, which shape their adaptive capacity and choice of coping measures. Integrating gender analysis into adaptation planning not only avoids reinforcing existing inequalities—such as increasing women’s unpaid labour—but also unlocks more resilient and sustainable outcomes by drawing on the full spectrum of community knowledge. A shift towards gender-transformative approaches seeks to remove legal, institutional and cultural obstacles, animating equal power dynamics and agency across social groups.
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Gender and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in gender and climate change adaptation strategies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Adaptive capacity: The ability of individuals or communities to adjust to climate change, moderate potential damages and exploit new opportunities.
Intersectionality: An analytical framework recognising that multiple social categories (e.g. gender, age, class) intersect to shape distinct experiences of vulnerability and resilience.
Gender-mainstreaming: The process of assessing and integrating gender perspectives into all stages of policy, planning and implementation to ensure equitable outcomes.
Gender-transformative change: An approach that seeks to challenge and reform harmful gender norms, power imbalances and structural inequalities rather than merely accommodate them.
References
- Addressing gender inequalities and strengthening women's agency to create more climate-resilient and sustainable food systems. Global Food Security (2024).
- Evaluating migration as successful adaptation to climate change: Trade-offs in well-being, equity, and sustainability. One Earth (2023).
- Beyond dichotomies: Gender and intersecting inequalities in climate change studies. Ambio (2016).
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