Geovania Machado Aires via UN Women

By Andreza Conceição, Researcher at EmpoderaClima

The econometric study, developed by economist, researcher and project management assistant at EmpoderaClima Andreza Conceição, suggests that there are gender differences in scientific knowledge, concern and environmental proactivity regarding climate change among brazilians. The research was done using data from the “Brazilians’ perception on Climate change” national questionnaire,  commissioned by the Institute of Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro (ITS-RJ), in partnership with the Climate Change Program from Yale University. In this context, the role of EmpoderaClima was to analyze the secondary data of the questionnaire and identify if gender is a relevant variable regarding people’s perception on climate change. The climate perception, on the other hand, was approached in three fronts: concern, knowledge, and proactivity. 

The first result found is that brazilian women, on average, have less scientific knowledge than men regarding climate change; this is aligned with a few literary studies which state that, due to education inequalities since childhood, boys are more stimulated to learn about natural and exact sciences than girls.   

Because of this difference, women are more likely to doubt their scientific and mathematical abilities, and therefore more likely to expect having less success in this area. By evaluating if there’s a gender difference on the personal perception of how much the respondents think they know about global warming, the results show that women underestimate their own knowledge more than men. In other words, even when the level of knowledge of each respondent is considered, being a woman increases the chances of being less confident about their own level of knowledge.

A recurring argument in literature is that this gender difference comes from the variations in scientific education since childhood, which persist through time. Most arguments focus on the stimulus differences to learn about science, and on the expectations for the social roles that future men and women will play in society. Nevertheless, it’s worth considering that the greater school evasion from young girls due to early pregnancy, associated with misinformation, may have a big influence on this gender difference regarding knowledge about global warming.

Beyond gender, the young and less educated people showcase having a greater level of knowledge on global warming - which suggests two things: the climate education reaches more youth, and it comes through alternative ways to formal education (school, university etc.), like online courses, social media etc. Next, the race factor doesn’t seem relevant to determine the level of scientific knowledge, but political ideology does: people more associated with the left wing are more well informed about climate change. Besides, people who get their information from printed newspapers and magazines seem to know less about the subject. Despite the young having more knowledge, they underestimate what they think they know more than the eldest.

It’s interesting that the study results point that gender is an important factor to determine the level of concern regarding climate change - in general, brazilian women seem reasonably more concerned about the effects of global warming than men, despite being less scientifically taught about the subject.

Why are they more concerned, even though they know less? The literature states that scientific knowledge it’s not that relevant to explain concern or engagement with the climate agenda; in fact, it’s the socialization of gender that explains this distinction (Image 1).

Image 1: Graph about the Socialization of Gender. Original design based on Chan, H. W., Pong, V., & Tam, K. P. (2019)

The socialization of gender theoreticians clarify that boys are introduced to a concept of masculinity associated with competitiveness, independence, reason above emotion, control and objectivity. When they grow up, it’s expected that they can financially support their family, and eventually become fathers. In the same way, girls are taught to be cooperative, empathetic, compassionate, and to develop a sense of care with others - when they grow up, society expects them to become mothers. 

Merchant’s ecofeminist theory (1990), on the other hand, is based on the common ground between the feminist movement and the environmental movement: the search for equality. In other words, women fight against social and economic restrictions which keep them subordinated, while environmentalists report the exploitation of nature and its consequences. Therefore, this similarity, along with values associated with their social roles of care and reproduction, would make them more concerned and engaged with the environmental agenda than men. In summary, women are more concerned because they’re more altruistic and they care more.

Image 2: Positive answer comparisons to questions regarding the environment. Source: Institute of Technology and Society. Edition: 2021

There is another argumentative line which sustains that the greater risk perception women have comes from the fact that they are more vulnerable to the effects of global warming, as pointed by recent UN reports. This first article, however, didn’t explore this argument, which can be relevant to comprehend this gender gap on concern and proactivity. This article explored if women are more uneasy than men regarding the effects of global warming on themselves and their family - and no gender gap was found. It’s a result that goes in the opposite direction of those which states the women are not more concerned in general terms, but are on specific terms. In the article, other variables that explain the concern with climate change are explored.

At last, the study of EmpoderaClima on climate perception points out that there is a big gender difference in environmental proactivity. In order to measure this variable, a sum index was created composed of seven questions about more ecological behaviors and attitudes (Image 2). The statistical regression results showed that women are largely more proactive than men. Scientific knowledge is also important to determine engagement with the climate agenda, but not so much as concern - which plays a substantial and significant role in generating proactivity. In other words, although men and women differ in the level of scientific knowledge, it has little to no effect at all on environmental attitudes. In fact, women’s larger social engagement comes from the socialization of gender and the social roles attributed to each gender, making them more concerned and empathetic to climate and environmental causes.

Climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing the global community this century, in which our performance will be essential to determine the continuity of the human species. In this context, recent studies revealed that women are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, and that women from the Global South are even more affected than those from the North. Still, the literature on gender and climate change reveals that women are also more creative than men in coming up with solutions involving mitigation and adaptation. Women would have greater risk perception, greater predisposition to change behaviors and to take pro-climate attitudes than men.

So, even though they present less scientific knowledge in a few studies, women are more sensitive to the risks arising from this crisis, which results in proactive actions in defense of a more sustainable society. The empirical literature which studies gender dynamics in the context of the climate crisis is limited and focused on developed countries. However, the unequal impacts of this crisis impose the necessity of expanding the physical frontiers of scientific content production in this field. By taking this first step looking at Brazil, this study opens a wide range of new research on climate change focused on the gender issue.