The Gendered Devastation of Pakistan's Floods: Impacts on Women and Children

Imtiaz Ali, University of Massachusetts-Boston (United States)

The recent floods across Pakistan have killed hundreds of people, traumatizing an entire nation, but leaving the deepest scars on women and children. Pakistanis have seen their standing crops, livestock, and crucial means of connectivity like bridges and roads washed away—their livelihoods gone. From June to September 2025, around 1000 people have died, at least 4.8 million have been displaced, with an estimated 4,700 villages affected1. Pakistan is bearing an unequal burden of climate change, contributing less than 1% of global greenhouse emissions annually, but faces a high risk in the form of extreme environmental events2. Following the same pattern, the floods affect women and children severely and unevenly. Why do floods affect women and children disproportionately, and why are vulnerabilities not equally shared? This paper explores how gender shapes socio-economic roles in traditional Pakistani society, determining who can access water, food, education, and healthcare.