When we think of climate change, certain things immediately come to mind. Fossil fuels, deforestation or rising sea levels, for example. Gender-based violence wouldn’t be one of them. But according to the UN, 80 per cent of people who are displaced by climate change are women and girls, with a growing body of evidence suggesting that extreme weather events leave them more vulnerable to misogynistic attacks.
With Earth Day on April 22nd being less than a week away, it is now more important than ever to understand and prepare for the dangers of climate change that impact at least 3.6 billion people worldwide.
Forced Marriages
Human-induced climate change causes long-term shifts in Earth’s weather patterns and global temperatures, often resulting in increased desertification and fiercer tropical cyclones. Globally, over the last two decades, the number of droughts has risen by 29 per cent, storms by 40 per cent and floods by 134 per cent. Poorer nations and countries near the equator are disproportionately affected. But it is often their female populations that pay the highest price following hazardous weather conditions.
Studies have found that extreme weather events lead to an uptick in child and forced marriages. After droughts recently hit the Horn of Africa, girls as young as 12 were married off to men five times their age. Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, there is a direct correlation between heatwaves that last for over 30 days and a 50 per cent increase in marriages involving girls between the ages of 11 and 14.
When natural disasters wipe out entire economies, people’s ability to work, farm or earn money is decimated. Because of this, more parents decide to hand over their daughters to suitors. This not only means that households have one less mouth to feed, but it also provides a source of income for the daughter’s relatives in the form of a dowry: a tradition in certain cultures whereby money, land or gifts are given to a bride’s family by the groom’s. In times of hardship, daughters are too often reduced to a commodity, something to exchange for financial gain or to preserve their ‘honour.’
Extreme weather events are linked to another, underreported, form of female oppression: witch killings. This involves the murder of elderly women who are denounced by their relatives. Witch killings can double after periods of intense rainfall or droughts. Researcher Edward Miguel explains that unfavourable climate conditions reduce crop yields and incomes in rural communities. Families, therefore, seek to ‘eliminate the family member with the smallest future earning potential,’ something that is seen as being religiously acceptable. Witch killings are a well-documented phenomenon in western Tanzania, but are also known to occur in other remote regions across Africa, India and Nepal.
Domestic Abuse
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a particular form of domestic abuse between married couples or romantic partners. It is estimated that for every degree that global temperatures rise, IPV will increase by 4.7 per cent. By 2090, one in ten cases of IPV could be linked to climate change. Now that’s a truly terrifying prospect.
‘Extreme events don’t themselves cause [IPV],’ clarifies Kim van Daalen, an environmental epidemiologist, ‘but rather they exacerbate the drivers of violence or create environments that enable this type of behaviour.’
We know that any kind of external stress, whether that be losing a football match or struggling with finances, can trigger more frequent outbursts of violence in already abusive relationships. A 2019 study from South Africa, for example, linked food insecurity with rising levels of IPV. In this context, more women might seek part-time employment or become seamstresses to improve their household income. Trouble is, certain cultures disapprove of women in employment and some even outright ban it. An abusive husband may use violence to exert his authority and remind his wife of her place as the homemaker.
Another issue to consider is that rising isolation immediately following severe weather events may embolden abusers to behave in more extreme ways. After all, victims can’t possibly call for help if the phone lines have been severed during a storm or a typhoon has destroyed the nearest police station. This phenomenon can be observed in developed and developing nations alike. A study of internally-displaced people in Mississippi found that rates of sexual assault and intimate partner violence soared in the two years following Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters in America’s history. Eighteen years later, the devastating wildfires in Maui caused a similar surge in IPV, with female Filipino migrants worst affected.
Violence from Strangers
Severe weather events don’t just make people poorer; they leave them more vulnerable. When local infrastructure like water pumps and latrines gets damaged, it is women who are forced to travel further afield to collect water or relieve themselves in privacy, increasing the risks of these journeys. Should their homes be destroyed, they would be even more vulnerable. Without adequate shelter, women and girls are exposed to a myriad of threats: rape, femicide, sexual assault and human trafficking, to name a few. In Haiti, for example, gender-based violence is currently on the rise. The most vulnerable women and girls are those who have recently been displaced by Hurricane Melissa and ongoing gang violence.
Climate change itself does not cause societies to suddenly turn sexist or make decent husbands abusive. However, it does exacerbate the worst aspects of human nature: conflict, desperation, a thirst for dominance. Heatwaves may increase the number of forced marriages, but only in countries where daughters are already viewed as less valuable than sons. Torrential rains may spark witch killings, but only in communities where it is acceptable to rob older and lower-caste women of their lives. Ultimately, an imbalance of power and a culture of misogyny must already exist. But it does highlight another consequence of dilly-dallying on our climate targets.
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