Women on the Margins of Extreme Weather Events

By Taís Serra Montani, Researcher at EmpoderaClima

Women, who are protagonists in creating adaptation measures and rebuilding areas affected by environmental disasters, as well as responsible for bringing identity back to communities, need to be recognized and represented in the solution to the climate crisis.

Extreme weather events (referred to here also as climate disasters) have already become part of everyday life for many communities around the world, which are facing adaptation challenges and constant forced displacement to safer regions. When natural phenomena intensified by the climate crisis hit cities and communities, the effects generated are not only asymmetrical, but also accentuate social and gender inequalities in the regions affected.

A look at climate disasters

Climate change has the effect of intensifying natural phenomena. Rains become intense storms, which, depending on the structure of the city, can become floods and cause landslides. Days of drought can last for weeks or months. The oceans suffer from constantly changing currents, and the rise in sea level together with high-speed winds can lead to storm surges and, in the worst cases, tsunamis. Regions naturally prone to earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes are more vulnerable to the intensification of these phenomena which, on a larger scale, become real environmental and humanitarian disasters.

The origin of the climate crisis is anthropological - that is, a problem exacerbated by the human species. With this in mind, it can be said that we are not witnessing an “intensification of natural phenomena”, but a reaction of the earth proportional to the intensity of the violence used against it by human beings. Alarming natural phenomena are nature's way of crying out for help for everything we have put it through. In this context, a disaster is the result of human beings' incessant exploitation of the planet's natural resources, without the proper perception of the human species as part of biodiversity and nature, interconnected and interdependent.

Other than the humans being responsible for the climate crisis as we see it today, they are also responsible for the disorderly expansion of urban developments, the construction of dams, landfills and dumps, as well as other ways of damaging what used to be known as natural environments. Cities and urban lifestyles do not respond adequately to the intensified reactions of natural phenomena.

Therefore, climate disasters have two effects: they reveal the inequalities of the region in which they occur, as well as accentuating them. Gender inequality, for example, is present in our daily lives from the smallest traces to the biggest shocks of asymmetry. The range of effects in the context of an environmental disaster is immense: both mental and physical, affecting quality of life as a whole, such as the right to housing, access to income, security, basic resources such as education, health and reproductive rights. These consequences are completely at odds with what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides, including in terms of the dignity of the human person. If the impacts are already naturally serious, we need to analyze how they occur in a context of public calamity and climate crisis.

Extreme weather events and their impact on women

It has been pointed out that women and children are 14 times more at risk of dying in the face of climate disasters. For this reason, a gender lens is essential for analyzing disasters, targeting climate funding and ensuring representation in the formulation of policies, measures and projects that respond effectively to the climate crisis.

In Brazil, specifically in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, we witnessed the biggest climate disaster in the state's history in 2024. Between the months of May and June 2024, more than 90% of Rio Grande do Sul was underwater.

Heavy rains in the Serra Gaúcha accumulated, producing landslides. After a few days, this water flowed into other local bodies of water and the metropolitan region witnessed a historic flood. Neighborhoods around the state were evacuated in a hurry, people were rescued and shelters were set up. Thousands of families lost their homes, along with the history and identity they safeguarded. Likewise, many families lost their jobs and any financial stability, and even their access to health, education and security.

The floods in Rio Grande do Sul affected 2,398 million people. Of the 497 municipalities, 478 were affected. The main impact of gender inequality in this scenario was the reports of gender-based violence and sexual abuse in shelters. The situation caused by the floods, which was already one of public calamity, still needed to be adapted so that crime against women and girls stopped spreading.

The trauma of losing their homes and loved ones, as well as risking their lives, was compounded by violence and insecurity in the refuge environment. This is why shelters exclusively for women and children were set up as a matter of urgency.

All intersectionalities that suffer from some kind of violence must be considered in the event of an extreme weather event, including women, LGBTQIAP+ people, black, indigenous, peripheral, disabled, immigrants, among other historically minoritized and excluded groups.

Single mothers had to prepare the rescue for themselves and their children. Women married to men had to separate from their husbands to a shelter exclusively for women and children, taking care of their children on their own. Women in general had to separate from their male family members because of crimes inside the shelters. This condition continued for almost two months.

As a society, we link care work to women. As a result, as well as looking after themselves and any children they may have, the elderly and other dependents have also become part of the relief package for many women in Rio Grande do Sul.

We're only talking about the disaster that affected EmpoderaClima's home state, but unfortunately many disasters have the same outcome. Hurricane Katrina, which devastated much of the southern coast of the United States in 2005, had many social impacts. In her book “Climate Justice”, Mary Robinson tells the story of Sharon Hanshaw, a beauty salon owner in Mississippi who was a victim of Katrina. Sharon explains that the very large-scale hurricane, even before it reached Mississippi, already created a great inequality between those who managed to flee the region and those who stayed. Of the people who were forcibly displaced, 73% were city black residents.

After the disaster, a symbolic line created a racial divide on the lands of the south coast. At that moment, environmental racism was on full display, especially affecting black women who would go through great difficulties to rebuild what they had lost materially and emotionally.

Post-disaster scenarios

In Porto Alegre, the exit from the shelter and the lowering of the water level can be considered good news in a flood scenario, but it was only the first step. Women with children who lost their jobs as a result of more than a month's absence had a range of related obstacles: finding a new job and, often, new daycare centers to leave the children in, since their region was destroyed by the floodwaters.

It is essential to point out that the obstacles faced by women in accessing the job market differ significantly from those experienced by men. From the possibility of going on maternity leave affecting their careers to constant objectification and the mistaken perception of lower intellectual capacity, women are often placed at a disadvantage in the selection process of the job market. This scenario is perpetuated when we consider that most of the leadership positions in large institutions around the world are still held by men.

The problem is exacerbated when we consider that the water has gone down and, with it, thousands of businesses have also closed their doors; businessmen and entrepreneurs have to look for new sources of income. With an economic crisis in place, the social effects for women are more serious, both during and after the climate disaster.

A post-disaster region is unlit, has little traffic and goes into reconstruction mode, even if only partially. Insufficient policing to cover all the affected areas makes it difficult for women to travel alone at certain times.

Lack of access to water and personal and intimate hygiene items prevents girls from going to school when they menstruate. Poor hygiene facilitates the spread of various diseases during this period, contracted mainly by women.

Houses in affected areas need rounds of heavy cleaning in order to become homes again. Cleaning, as well as general housework, within the patriarchal society in which we live, is the responsibility of the women in most families, as well as caring for other family members and children who have also experienced the trauma of the disaster. These burdens carried by women are not visible to everyone.

Women who don't have a single working day end up being affected by urban and public transport planning, and disaster-affected areas become remote for bus traffic and train line maintenance. Women who have to go to work, look after family members and come home to do the housework end up facing major difficulties in urban traffic planning.

Bianca Roso, in her book Women in Climate Disasters, brings up the case of the Mariana dam collapse in Minas Gerais in 2016. The aftermath of the disaster came with emergency aid for victims whose lives had been directly affected by the disaster. However, 70% of the registrations put the man as the head of the family. In addition to not considering women's autonomy, there was a masculinization of the disaster space, in which women victims also became invisible. Registration had a direct impact on the receipt of emergency financial aid, which was not directly accessible to the women affected, but rather to their male partners.

Foto: Reprodução/GloboNews

In addition, various work activities carried out by women were disregarded in the reparations process for the Mariana disaster. These include the occupations carried out by fisherwomen, shellfish gatherers, artisans, laundresses, among many other activities considered unproductive for the country - and therefore not counted.

When we consider that domestic and care work is also unpaid, women in this situation are subjecting themselves to endless hours of extra work compared to what they receive at the end of the month to support themselves.

Long after we think Katrina over and done with, women whose jobs and professions in teaching, health care, mental health, crisis work, and community advocacy bring them into direct contact with affected families will feel the stress of “first responders” whose work never ends (Social Science Research Council).

Because of the effects suffered disproportionately by women in regions affected by climate disasters, they are at risk of developing much more acute post-traumatic stress than the rest of the community.

People who are doubly vulnerable due to both gender and social class discrimination are extremely affected by climate disasters. In poorer regions, these effects are multiplied. The lack of public transportation from the periphery makes it impossible to get around the community, the reconstruction of houses is simply not financially viable, and there are no forecasts for the recovery of jobs and small businesses within the community itself.

In the context of an extreme weather event where public schools are affected by the disaster and often used as temporary shelters, children are left without access to education for months, causing lasting impacts on their development. The same happens with health care in countries that provide it publicly: until the government rebuilds the infrastructure of health centers and hospitals, access to treatment is not part of the regional reality. Depending on the disaster, contamination and the spread of diseases is extremely common, such as leptospirosis in floods. In addition, pregnant women face high risks with the interruption of health services - prenatal care and other complications cannot be attended to with the same urgency and accessibility. During the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, pregnant women were treated in makeshift shelters, as several hospitals had their doors closed by the rising water. There's no need to mention the situation in countries that don't offer free access to healthcare, it's simply no longer an option for the lower classes in disaster situations.

After an environmental disaster, access to water and electricity still needs to be restored, and peripheral regions end up being the last to have these resources re-established. In addition to the aforementioned hygiene barriers, these resources prevent even the most marginalized population affected by the disaster from eating. Not just to cook food, but also to sanitize it and avoid contamination. In the report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2022, it is made clear that women and children are at greater risk of food insecurity.

The work that comes with having children out of school and elderly people and/or simply people with health problems who still can't afford medical treatment falls entirely on women. Care work, child rearing and domestic work have always been within the scope of women in our patriarchal society.

Women affected by a climate disaster, who were already financially dependent on their husbands, are now at the mercy of their husbands' priorities for future spending. As a result, their household hours tend to increase dramatically in order to cut costs.

Patriarchal society defines very specific roles for women. But for men, too. The male figure that makes the head of the family the breadwinner is extremely detrimental to men's mental health - and can make them a threat to those around them, especially women and girls.

One of the legacies of the floods in Rio Grande do Sul is that hundreds of people are now living by the roadsides. These families used to live on the state's islands, and are no longer able to get back on their feet financially. Months after the disaster, there were still countless tents on the road linking the capital to the interior of the state, with women and girls suffering from insecurity due to gender-based violence. In addition to the occurrences of violence, the possibility of fleeing their aggressors became non-existent.

Bianca Roso, presenting data on the Mariana dam collapse, lists the main circumstances related to rights violations felt by the women victims of the disaster: compromised mental health, family conflicts and episodes of domestic violence, an overload of household chores, difficulties in processing aid, as well as the invisibilization of their conditions and the discrediting of their work activities.

All these consequences are referred to by Roso as “disasters within disasters”. This is because the poor management of the post-disaster period in Minas Gerais has caused a violation of the inalienable rights of the women who were victims of the dam collapse, such as discrediting their economic activity, de-registration, among other challenges.

Forced Displacement

The term climate migrant and refugee is not yet recognized in international legislation. However, the term “refuge” refers to forced displacement due to third-party factors that directly interfere with the survival of the displaced individual. In other words, it refers to the search for security, which is one of the main challenges that arise in a context of floods, where people need to be evacuated and face insecurity.

Out of five people displaced by disasters, four are women. Therefore, forced displacement and climate refuge are primarily women's problems. Situations of gender-based violence, food insecurity, health problems, possible financial issues, as well as many others, are part of the scope of urgent demands that need to be on climate agendas to deal with extreme weather events and their displacement and migratory consequences.

Creating emergency solutions

Sharon Hanshaw, a woman who was a victim of Hurricane Katrina, created the Coastal Women for Change Foundation. The Foundation aims to unite women victims of the hurricane to rebuild their lives, homes and health. In Robinson's book, Sharon mentions being an activist by accident. For her, being an activist, even if accidentally, has made her a leader in creating solutions.

Because women are disproportionately victims of the climate crisis, they tend to create solutions and adaptation measures without depending on public authorities and/or international initiatives to do so. After all, for those on the front line, adaptation is a matter of survival.

Hanshaw had a very striking speech at COP15 (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Copenhagen in 2009: “Women are the ones bearing the brunt of climate change”. As we saw in this study, this applies perfectly in the unfortunate cases of disasters. Women need to be present at the rescue, they run additional risks of gender insecurity during the shelter and refuge period, they return home with a long domestic journey of home recovery and caring for family members. Therefore, if there is one group with the experience to design strategies and public policies to implement mitigation and adaptation measures, it is women and girls.

This highlights the need for specific protocols to protect women in climate emergencies. The implementation of guidelines adapted to local realities and gender, race and class inequalities is essential to guarantee safety, access to health services and the prevention of gender-based violence. Collaboration between governments, civil society organizations and feminist movements is key to strengthening the institutional response and ensuring that women and girls are cared for in a dignified and effective manner in climate crisis situations.