Climate Change Is a Feminist Issue Not Just an Environmental One

Dec 23, 2021
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In 2015, Botswana experienced its worst drought in history. Since then, families have had to move, taking their children out of schools; farmers have lost crops, leaving communities hungry and desperate.

Natural disasters like this have a particularly devastating effect on young women in Botswana, according to a study from the University of Cincinnati, as they’re forced to leave school to work or to fetch water for their families. “I feel so sad that my sister left school to take care of us. Both our parents died. We are four children,” one 13-year-old girl told researchers. “It pains me to see my sister struggling for our sake. I wish she could go back to school. What will her future be like without school? She encourages us to go to school so we can have a better future, but what about her?”

Climate change experts and world leaders met in Glasgow, Scotland, in November to discuss how educating young women is vital to reversing the effects of climate change; the data indicates that climate change impacts impoverished female populations more than any other.