Women on the front lines: Tackling climate-driven violence at work

In this visual story, women workers around the world reveal how the intersecting threats of climate change and gender-based violence shape their workplaces — and how they are organizing to demand safety, dignity, and justice at work.

By // 12 June 2025
Photo: Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center.

Across the globe, women workers are contending with the dual crises of climate change and gender-based violence and harassment, or GBVH, in the world of work. These forces are not separate. Whether it’s rising heat or forced migration, climate change is making workplaces increasingly unsafe for women workers as existing vulnerabilities leave them more exposed to violence and harassment, according to experts.

But as the risks for women are accelerating, so is the organizing. From landfills in South Africa to garment factories in central Java, women workers and their allies are taking collective action. They are participating in negotiations for international agreements, designing solutions for safer workplaces, and holding businesses and governments accountable for decent work amid rising temperatures.

Read the visual story, and visit “Women Rising” — a 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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