Why extreme heat affects more women than men – 11/24/2023 – Environment

ANDstis the fourth edition of newsletterr All, which presents discussions, news and reflections designed for women. Do you want to receive it to the Wednesdays In your email? Sign up below:

A few days after record heat in regions of Brazil, agencies linked to the UN, including the WHO and Unicef, published a document saying that extreme climate-related events pose a threat to the health of pregnant women, babies and children. An overheating world, they wrote, increases the spread of deadly diseases and potentially serious infections for the group.

Studies indicate that women are more susceptible than men to extreme temperatures due to various physiological reasons, in addition to worse access to health services and gender-based violence. At the same time, they are most affected because they are mainly responsible for caring for children and babies, groups at risk for excessive heat.

But it’s not just health issues that make hot flashes a risk factor for us women. Another point of impact is related to work, whether paid or not.

According to a report prepared by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, we assume caregiving responsibilities associated with heat-related health conditions more frequently than men. Care is a practice historically linked to the feminine universe.

When it comes to the economy, the document points out that we, already usually affected by salary differences in relation to them, when faced with the decrease in income related to high temperatures, we experience an even greater disparity. Adding the losses resulting from paid and unpaid work, researchers found a loss of 260% for women, in contrast to 76% for men, exacerbating already existing gender inequalities.

Looking at the United States, India and Nigeria, the authors found that heat costs countries $120 billion a year in decreased productivity of women’s paid work.

It can be difficult to understand the connection between variants and climate change, and studies show that the link is both direct and indirect. Migration issues, exposure to violence, school dropout, drop in income and even child marriage are factors that, when caused by the climate, make women more vulnerable.

Report from Sheet at the beginning of this year showed that 80% of people forced to leave their homes because of climate change are women, which generates a series of consequences around the world, according to UN data.

The text also showed that in some African countries, men living in rural regions affected by climate disasters migrate to urban centers in search of jobs, leaving women and children behind.

Save the Children estimates that women and girls make up more than 40% of the agricultural workforce and are responsible for up to 80% of food production.

Among the aggravating factors that go beyond the division between rural and urban is the woman’s social context – whether she is in poverty, is black, has pre-existing illnesses or the place she lives, for example. Although climate change affects everyone, groups in vulnerable situations are the most exposed and have the greatest difficulty in dealing with the risks generated by extreme temperatures, according to Lígia Amoroso Galbiati, who works in the Working Group on Gender and Justice at the Observatory of Climate.

Low-income women, for example, are often exposed to heat because they work informally, as street vendors or domestic workers, for example, Galbiati wrote to me in an email interview. At the same time, black women are victims of environmental racism, which can be summarized as discrimination and prejudice that non-white groups experience as a result of the climate.

“In a society where gender inequality is structural, the negative effects of climate change on women are related to less access to healthcare systems, the fact that they have lower income, and are more likely to suffer from food insecurity. Also It’s about the women who fall into care work, many as solo mothers,” she said.

To read in Folha

The National Violence Against Women Survey shows that 60% of women do not report the violence they have suffered to security authorities. Mônica Bergamo also tells us that rapes increased by 14.9% and feminicide, by 2.6% in Brazil, according to the Security Forum. The numbers are worrying. By clicking here you will find ways to report violence against women.

Reporter Bárbara Blum spoke with Italian feminist and author Silvia Federici, who states, in an interview, that women are not people in capitalism, just bodies.

Finally, Vitória Macedo writes a text explaining why women usually prefer home office and flexible work. Spending more time with children and quality of life are among the reasons.

I also want to recommend

To watch, the documentary “Incompatible with Life”, by Eliza Capai. I watched it to write a review and I take the opportunity to recommend the film, which surprises by bringing to the surface the pain of pregnancy loss and a visceral vision of abortion.

To eat (and drink, why not?) visit Julice Boulangère, a bakery located in Pinheiros, in the west of São Paulo, and led by a female chef who gives the establishment its name. The space specializes in natural fermentation, but the star of the house, in my opinion, is the croissant with almond cream.