Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

We are pleased to share our new article, “Gender, Development, and Recognition of Anthropogenic Climate Change” published in World Development.

Climate change affects everyone – but not everyone understands it in the same way. Using survey data from a study of 103 countries and territories (n = 92,691) conducted in partnership with Data for Good at Meta, this study investigates how gender, economic development, and democratic freedoms shape global understanding of the human causes of climate change.

Key findings:

1. In many developing countries, women are less likely than men to understand that climate change is human-caused.
2. Among countries with higher levels of economic and democratic development, this gender gap narrows and eventually disappears.
3. Educational disparities are a major driver of this divide – where women have less access to education, they are also less likely to understand climate change.
4. Democratic freedoms play an important role: Societies with stronger civil liberties have smaller gender gaps in understanding climate change.

Together, these findings highlight that structural inequalities – especially in education and access to information – shape how people learn and think about climate change.

This research underscores the need for gender-responsive climate education and communication strategies, especially in regions where women face barriers to formal learning and information access. Ensuring that both men and women understand the human causes of global warming is vital for building equitable and effective climate solutions.

The full article is available here for those with a subscription to World Development. If you would like to request a copy of the published paper, please send an email to climatechange@yale.edu with the subject line “Gender and Development Paper.”