A literature review of the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change on women’s and men’s assets and well-being in developing countries
Climate change increasingly affects the livelihoods of people, and poor people experience especially negative impacts given their lack of capacity to prepare for and cope with the effects of a changing climate. Among poor people, women and men may experience these impacts differently. This review presents and tests two hypotheses on the gender differentiated impacts of climate change on women and men in developing countries. The first hypothesis is that climate related events affect men’s and women’s well-being and assets differently. The second hypothesis is that climate-related shocks affect women more negatively than men. With limited evidence from developing countries, this review shows that climate change affects women’s and men’s assets and well-being differently in six impact areas: impacts related to agricultural production, food security, health, water and energy resources, climate-induced migration and conflict, and climate-related natural disasters.