The Next Feminist Wave: Heat

Nov 7, 2023 | Emily Hardy
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The summer of 2023 featured some of the hottest days ever recorded. Feminists should be alarmed. 

Climate change may not seem like a feminist issue on its face. A warming planet poses a cross-cutting and common threat. But the perception that climate impacts result in uniform harm produces partial solutions that neglect the world’s most vulnerable populations. This alone makes environmental justice a gender justice issue as well.

Extreme heat exposure has profound effects on human security that impact everything from power-based violence to agricultural practices. And how we experience the consequences of that heat exposure will be intimately related to systemic power. In other words, one’s position in larger systems (shaped by identities including gender, race, documentation status, ability status, and class) will change our interactions with temperature.

Using a feminist lens to prepare for a warming world allows us to address the systemic discrepancies caused by the intersectional impacts of heat exposure.