Climate change could drive an increase in gender-based violence

New research suggests that as climate change leads to more intense and more frequent extreme weather events, there is a risk that the amount of gender-based violence experienced by women, girls, sexual and gender minorities could all increase too. This work, conducted by a Cambridge-led team and published in The Lancet Planetary Health, paints a concerning picture of how future climate events may exacerbate damaging social relationships too.

Warning: The content in this article discusses sensitive issues relating to sexual violence and abuse.

In the study, the team conducted a systematic review of existing scholarly literature in the field of gendered violence and extreme weather events. They found more than 26,000 titles, and then excluded duplicates and studies that did not meet their selection criteria (such as those focusing on violence against cisgender heterosexual men, or ones linked to natural disasters with no connection to climate change). One major difference to previous reviews was that this research, included people from sexual and gendered minorities too – these groups are often omitted from research.

Extreme events don’t themselves cause gender-based violence, but rather they exacerbate the drivers of violence or create environments that enable this type of behaviour.

–Kim van Daalen, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, leader of the study.

After extreme weather events, critical infrastructure often erodes, exacerbating economic troubles, and this in turn fuels violent and criminal behaviour. The exact reasons for this vary across locations, however – in the example of Bangladesh, young girls are forced to marry in the aftermath of extreme floods because it is “one less mouth to feed” at a time when food is harder to obtain.

Tobias Ide, who studies politics and international relations at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, says that, despite the geographical imbalance, “the review is really significant”. Many studies on extreme events and security have a broader focus, and are concerned with issues such as civil wars, riots and terrorism. He notes: “This review focuses on what happens at the micro-level. As gender violence affects millions of women and gender minorities around the world, it is really crucial to talk about violence at a smaller scale.” The researchers acknowledged an English-language bias in the study too, although they noted that the shift in focus from social unrest gave their work new importance.

Existing social roles and norms, combined with inequalities leading to marginalisation, discrimination, and dispossession make women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities disproportionately vulnerable to the adverse impacts of extreme events.

–Kim van Daalen, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, leader of the study.

The team identified 41 studies that explored several types of extreme events, such as storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires, alongside gender-based violence, such as sexual violence, harassment, physical violence, ‘witch’ killing, early or forced marriage, and emotional violence. The studies covered countries on all six of the major continents and all, but one focused on cisgender women and girls. The researchers found evidence that gender-based violence appears to be exacerbated by extreme weather and climate events, driven by factors such as economic shock, social instability, enabling environments, and stress.

As gender violence affects millions of women and gender minorities around the world, it is really crucial to talk about violence at a smaller scale.

–Tobias Ide, student of politics and international relations at Murdoch University in Perth

Kim van Daalen, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, who led the study. She said: “Extreme events don’t themselves cause gender-based violence, but rather they exacerbate the drivers of violence or create environments that enable this type of behaviour. At the root of this behaviour are systematic social and patriarchal structures that enable and normalise such violence. Existing social roles and norms, combined with inequalities leading to marginalisation, discrimination, and dispossession make women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities disproportionately vulnerable to the adverse impacts of extreme events.”

Although the concept of gender-based violence is too broad a term to inform direct and overreaching policy solutions, this research forces the discussion to the forefront. Susan Cutter, director of the Hazards Vulnerability and Resilience Institute at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, said: “The review is quite consistent with what we know about disasters. Any kind of disaster, whether it is climate-related or not, disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable.” These extreme events also lead to increased reporting, unmasking existing violence too. For Ms Cutter, the broad definition at this stage is a good thing: There is a lot of specific literature on the different issues involving gender-based violence. “What this review does is to explicitly set down a marker of what can be considered as gender-based violence as a consequence of extreme weather events and show what we know until now. This is a great place to start.”