A widening gender gap in concern over climate change is emerging among young Americans, with women expressing significantly higher levels of worry and advocating for stronger action than their male counterparts, Bloomberg reports.
According to a Gallup analysis of polling data from 2001 to 2024, the share of women aged 18-29 who believe the US is doing too little to protect the environment has averaged 80% since 2017, a full 18 percentage points higher than the share of young men who hold the same view.
This growing concern among young women appears to have intensified after Donald Trump’s election in 2016. While young men have also shown increased climate awareness in recent years, the shift has been less dramatic.
Across the early 2000s, about two-thirds of both young women and men agreed that humans cause global warming. This consensus remained relatively stable during Barack Obama’s presidency. However, in recent years, the gap has widened significantly. An average of 86% of women aged 18-29 now agree with the statement that humans cause global warming, compared to 71% of men in the same age group.
Despite the growing concern, climate policy has not taken center stage in the current election cycle. In a Pew Research poll, voters ranked the economy, healthcare, immigration, and other issues as more important than climate change.
Leah Stokes, an environmental politics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, suggests that the widening gender gap on climate change might be linked to broader shifts in political attitudes rather than specific climate-related factors.
On average, 40% of young women identify as liberal in recent years, compared to a quarter of young men. While many more express liberal viewpoints on specific issues like climate change, women aged 18-29 remain more likely to prioritize environmental protection over economic growth, according to Gallup.
Isabella Guinigundo, communications manager for the Youth Climate Finance Alliance, believes that one reason for the gender gap is the heightened vulnerability of women to climate change and natural disasters. The United Nations has highlighted that women are disproportionately affected by climate change, often experiencing greater poverty and reliance on local resources for survival.
