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In this special episode of This Week in Global Development, Devex dives deeper into how climate change is driving increased gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work and the cutting-edge research that’s not only mapping its impacts but also improving our understanding of potential solutions.
As the world nudges closer to the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming established in the Paris Agreement, it’s important to recognize that not everyone is “feeling the heat” in the same way. Women workers in low- and middle-income countries are already bearing the brunt of the climate crisis as structural inequality and exploitative conditions are made worse by climate impacts such as rapidly rising temperatures and floods.
This episode explores some of the research that has, for the first time, mapped the impact of climate change on women workers and the many ways in which they’re already suffering increased workplace gender-based violence and economic losses when rising temperatures make it physically difficult, if not impossible, to do their work.
It also zooms in on the issue facing many of the world’s 750 million women informal workers, including street vendors and home-based workers, many of whom are working outdoors in increasingly extreme temperatures and are already experiencing life-threatening and deadly symptoms. And it’s not just extreme heat that’s driving physical, mental, and economic harm for women workers, but also other forms of extreme weather, including increasing rainfall, landslides, and drought.
Women workers leading to end gender-based violence and harassment at work
Women workers led a global campaign that resulted in a binding international labor treaty — ILO C190 — protecting workers from gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work. Devex spoke with two leaders at the forefront of the movement about what’s needed to implement it.
Hear directly from Kathy Baughman McLeod, the founder and CEO of Climate Resilience for All, a global NGO dedicated to strengthening women's health and livelihoods in the face of climate-driven extreme heat, and Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee, the head of research, policy, and innovation at human and labor rights organization Equidem, as they discuss how their research is helping to fill an increasingly urgent gap. In conversation with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar, they also discuss how research can help document climate-driven GBVH in the world of work in a way that centers the lived experience of women workers.
“The workers hit hardest are from the most economically vulnerable communities. In a way, they are the canaries in the coal mine. People are asking what is going to happen to working people as climate change accelerates, but it’s just a preview of what’s coming for all workers, not just the most vulnerable,” said Bhattacharjee.
The conversation raises several examples of just how profoundly climate change is impacting women workers, including the rise in nighttime temperature, which is driving productivity losses for many workers who wake up tired and unrested, leaving individuals more prone to mistakes and workplace accidents. “The beautiful thing is that we can make sure that no one dies from extreme heat,” said Baughman McLeod.
Visit Women Rising — a new narrative series spotlighting the intersection of gender-based violence and harassment and climate change in the world of work.
This content is sponsored by FORGE. To learn more, visit the series website.
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