How These Women Are Contributing to a Sustainable Tomorrow

Mar 8, 2022
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Every year on March 8, International Women’s Day celebrates women’s achievements and calls attention to the challenges they face. The 2022 International Women’s Day  theme is “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,” recognizing the contribution of women and girls around the world who are leading the charge on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response, to build a more sustainable future for all.

Around the world, climate change impacts tend to hit women harder than men. This is because women constitute the majority of the world’s poor — when disaster strikes, women have less access to resources, education, and decision-making power than men.

Women are also more dependent on the natural resources that are most threatened by climate change. For example, in many communities around the world, women and girls fetch water for cooking, cleaning, and gardens, and wood for fuel. Droughts, floods, and heat waves intensified by climate change are making these tasks more difficult and time consuming, leaving women less time to pursue their education or other sources of income, and impacting their health.