The Women’s Climate Strike are women bringing climate protest to their local areas. Like the school strikes, local groups meet regularly in public spaces to raise awareness in communities and put pressure on representatives. Women have been involved from all over the UK and worldwide. As well as working on local issues, we try to connect with each other to build a network of women who feel passionately about the climate crisis.
Why women?
Globally, women are most affected by the climate emergency. 80% of those displaced by climate disasters are women. We are also more likely to die in climate emergencies: “In the wake of the 2004 tsunami… surviving men outnumbered women by almost 3:1 in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. While no one cause was clear, there were similar patterns across the region. Men were more likely to be able to swim, and women lost precious evacuation time trying to look after children and other relatives.” (BBC, 2018)
Women worldwide are more likely to have caring responsibilities, which intensify when disaster strikes, and in many countries women are responsible for water collection and the majority of food production. We are more likely to experience poverty, meaning it is harder to recover from climate disasters. Additionally, there have been well documented increases in male violence against women and girls in the wake of disasters – climate catastrophe is no exception.
If you would like to join in with the Women’s Climate Strike, email us at womensclimatestrike@protonmail.com, and we will put in touch with a local group or talk you through starting your own.
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