Table 2. Examples of multisectoral solutions to climate change impacts on women’s health.

Exposure pathway	Impact on women	Gender-based solutions	Sectors involved
Increasing frequency of extreme heat events and rising average seasonal temperatures	• Increased morbidity and mortality and poor birth outcomes	• Provide air conditioning in maternal wards (shown to decrease intensive care need in neonatal period) [45] • Increase access to prenatal care in heat-vulnerable geographic areas • Implement heat early-warning systems with educational messages targeted at women • Collect and disseminate gender-disaggregated public health data • Consideration of the detrimental effects of urban heat islands, especially in regions with poor access	• Public health • Urban planning • Medicine
Poor air quality from combustion of fossil fuels; increased ground-level O3 from elevated temperatures	• Women spend a disproportionate amount of time in the home and thus are disproportionately affected by indoor air pollution, resulting in respiratory and cardiovascular disease	• Improve access to clean-burning cook stoves—shown to reduce exposure to carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter and decrease health risks [46] • Consider women’s transportation needs during urban planning • Consider the impacts of poor air quality on fetal and maternal health and strive to reach PM2.5 targets in rural and urban environments [15]	• Transportation • Technology • Public health
Increasing frequency of climate-related disasters, including hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires	• Women suffer disproportionate mortality during disasters and are at high risk of abuse and poor economic and mental health recovery	• Provide gender-sensitive emergency shelters that proactively safeguard women • Provide emergency obstetric and gynecologic care very early in the course of disasters • Increase availability of gender-disaggregated disaster-related health data • Increase gender-specific public health messaging before, during, and after disasters • Provide gender-sensitive psychologic services in the aftermath of disasters • Create economic recovery plans that provide vocational training for the female workforce	• Disaster management • Finance • Labor • Medicine
Shifting rainfall and temperature patterns impair crop, livestock, and fishery yields, contributing to food insecurity	• Women suffer higher rates of anemia and nutrient deficiencies, and although women produce 60%–80% of food, less than 10% are landowners in developing countries	• Empowerment through women-centered climate-resilient farming models that encourage and assist women in gaining cultivation rights and simultaneously provide skills and training to implement resilience-building practices • Community-based reintroduction of nutrient-dense, locally available wild edibles into the regular diets • Strengthen nutritional interventions in reproductive-aged women	• Agriculture • Finance • Public health • Environment
Water insecurity and increased risk of waterborne disease	• Water scarcity forces women to walk long distances to harvest from sources that may be biologically and toxicologically contaminated, as well as increases exposure to heat and decreases time spent on other activities such as education and economic gain	• Increase accessibility to affordable home water filters • Increase public investment in water infrastructure in high-risk areas such as urban slums • Engage local female leaders and female heads of household in local, regional, and national sanitation projects to promote culturally acceptable infrastructure development that ensures women have safe and private access to hygienic facilities and clean water • Promote water-saving practices that take into account the different uses of water for women	• Technology • Public health • Environment • Finance • Urban planning
Changes in temperature, precipitation, and ecology are altering the geographic distribution of vector-borne diseases	• Pregnant women are disproportionately affected by vector-borne diseases and additionally serve the role as primary caregivers to the sick	• Collection of gender-disaggregated health data • Vector-borne surveillance systems and early-warning systems can permit effective and efficient prepositioning of resources, including bed-nets and insecticides. • Childcare facilities can support women’s care-giving role while transformation of gender norms takes place	• Public health • Research community
Climate-induced environmental change drives human migration and/or results in “trapped” populations	• Women are vulnerable to forced migration as a result of environmental change, are often excluded from migration analysis, and suffer poor health outcomes as a result of interpersonal violence and lack of reproductive healthcare; they also have fewer options in terms of migrating into economically viable situations	• Planned and well-managed migration can reduce the chance of later humanitarian emergencies, ease people out of situations of vulnerability, and capitalize on opportunities afforded to the individual by migration (e.g., moving populations away from flood zones into areas of safety and prosperity) • Proactive management of natural resources in climate “hot spots” may prevent forced migration/trapped populations • The trend of migration is from rural to urban environments—action is needed to build urban infrastructure that is sustainable and flexible to accommodate this population flux • When migrants are in refugee camps, it is essential that all possible resources are deployed to protect women’s personal safety and provide reproductive health services	• Multinational cooperation • International and domestic food organizations • Labor • Finance

Abbreviation: PM_2.5, inhalable airborne particles with diameters that are 2.5 micrometers and smaller.