Across the world, extreme weather events are fueling gender-based violence during and after disasters

The global climate crisis has caused more storms, heatwaves, and other dangers. A new study shows how a warming world makes inequalities worse.

The visible toll of weather disasters, such as torn down buildings and buckled roads, can overshadow more veiled consequences, including gender-based violence experienced by women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities.

Researchers looked at 41 peer-reviewed studies and found that gender-based violence, such as sexual assault, intimate partner violence, or trafficking, is a recurring theme.

A growing body of research shows that climate change is causing extreme weather events to become more severe. According to the research team, the incidence of floods has increased by 134%, storms have increased by 40% and the incidence of droughts has increased by 29%.

All genders experience climate change in different ways, according to Van Daalen. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change risks compared to men and boys because of their gendered social roles and responsibilities. According to Van Daalen, the literature suggested that women were less likely to adapt after a natural disaster due to financial insufficiency.

While researchers were not entirely surprised by the increase in gender-based violence during and after extreme weather events, they found it interesting that gender-based violence seemed to be a common experience across different contexts.

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The risk of gender-based violence may be influenced by extreme events. " Due to their frequent marginalization, sexual and gender minorities are often more severely impacted by disasters," Van Daalen said, pointing to media reports of a few religious figures blaming the New Orleans gay community for the storm. A lack of documented evidence specific to sexual and gender minorities was found by the team's research.

Some examples include providing post-disaster shelters and relief services, with their own toilets and bath areas, designed to be exclusively accessed by women, girls, and sexual or gender minorities, or providing

Understanding the mechanisms through which extreme events may influence or affect gender-based violence can help inform the design and implementation of climate-resilient, context-specific, and sexual- and gender-responsive interventions that serve the needs of women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities. These interventions should be created by the affected communities.