How climate change impacts gender-based violence and harassment at work

In the garment sector, where women make up about 80% of the workforce, the International Labour Organization estimates that by 2030, 2.2% of total working hours will be lost due to climate-related heat stress. Women workers in the sector often work at a breakneck pace under high pressure to meet production targets, including in places like Cambodia where the production high season overlaps with the hottest time of the year, April to August.

As rising temperatures in factories slow the pace and decrease total working hours, women workers become increasingly vulnerable to abusive practices from male managers, including verbal, physical, and sexual attacks.

A report from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre found that, as a result of increasing production pressures, “women are denied access to toilets or have no time to access the toilet,” which also limits their access to drinking water and potentially endangering their health.

This year, amid a historic heat wave, Amazon India admitted to pressuring workers to participate in a pledge not to take breaks — including water or bathroom breaks — until they met their targets.

Mass faintings in garment sector hubs have also been documented, for example in Cambodia where 360 workers collapsed from heat exposure over a three-day period in 2017.

Heat waves can also push street sweepers to work at night to avoid the worst heat, exposing them to attacks, explained Reema Nanavaty, head of the trade union Self-Employed Women’s Association, or SEWA, which organizes informal women workers in India to safeguard their income and well-being. “Very often in the dark, they face men who are drunk or men who use the opportunity of darkness to abuse [the women] in different ways,” she said.

Storms can damage women street vendors’ stalls, forcing them to migrate or look for other precarious jobs. Floods, leading to sewer overflows, can force waste pickers — the majority of which are women — to work under extremely hazardous health conditions, explained Bhattacharjee.

Extreme rainfall, made more frequent by climate change, impacts public transport and slows down traffic. It often makes women late for work and potentially increases the risk of abuse from a supervisor, explained Inés González, a coordinator at the Mexican female trade union network Red de Mujeres Sindicalistas, adding that most women have no recourse to turn to when they are unfairly punished. “Even though people know that rain delays all transportation, the employer doesn’t care,” she said.

Climate change pushing migration

According to World Bank estimates, the impacts of climate change will force more than 143 million people across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America to migrate by 2050. Migration in itself, according to research, further exposes women to GBVH, including human trafficking, forced labor, and sexual assault, along the migration route.

Women left behind by migrating male family members also become more vulnerable, said Nanavaty. “She’s then the sole earner of the family, and she’s so desperate that she does any work that’s available at any wage, and therefore, subject to a lot of exploitation in terms of work and income, but also in terms of abuse,” she said.

Those in the informal economy with little access to legal protection are particularly vulnerable, according to ILO. In low- and middle-income countries, 70% of people work in the informal sector, with up to 92% of all employed women in low-income countries working in informal employment, compared with 87% of men. Sarojben Rohit, a farmer from Delhi, India, said lower-income women have fewer choices “and therefore become more vulnerable and subject to exploitation.”

Women continue to face these risks despite the adoption of ILO’s Convention 190, which has been ratified by 44 countries so far. Many more countries are implementing its provisions with support from unions and women worker leaders. The first international treaty of its kind, it recognizes the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including GBVH, and provides specific guidance for employers, governments, and workers on how best to prevent and address GBVH in the world of work.

It also aims to protect workers during their commutes to and from work, recognizing the high rates of GBVH experienced by women workers while in transit.

Protecting vulnerable workers

While various laws exist to prohibit and punish GBVH, legal loopholes and limited access to legal support and education means women remain at risk. Globally, 359 million women remain unprotected by law against sexual harassment in employment, with many more lacking legal protection in education and in public places, according to the Global Partnership for Education.

There are many women-worker-led initiatives advancing the implementation of the key provisions of ILO C190, but efforts to prevent and address GBVH in the world of work must consider the role of climate change.

SEWA, for example, offers savings, credit, health care, child care, insurance, legal aid, and capacity building to a range of working women, including garment workers, artisans, kite makers, and farmers — who wouldn’t typically be able to access such services — by organizing them into cooperatives.

Insurance, for example, offers them much-needed money when heat waves or flooding impact their ability to work, making them less likely to be pushed into more dangerous work environments and potential violence and abuse.

“Organizing women into enterprises serves as a buffer or a security against the negative impacts that the women face either due to climate change or migration, which then leads to a rise in harassment and violence,” said Nanavaty, adding that in feeling a sense of unity as a cooperative, women are better equipped to find solutions to their income challenges, leaving them less likely to experience GBVH.

“When women are economically secure, they are able to deal with their other vulnerabilities and social issues and fight violence against women as well,” she said.

Rohit, who is a SEWA climate grassroots leader enrolling women in her community in SEWA’s insurance program, explained how one of her fellow villagers was able to access insurance when high temperatures and a simultaneous cholera outbreak affecting her son made it difficult for her to work. “Had she not had a payout, she would have been compelled to go to a private money lender, which would have exploited her in terms of the interest rates,” said Rohit. Such lenders, added Nanavaty, often also take advantage of women and physically molest them.

On the other side of the world in Mexico, which is vulnerable to tropical cyclones and floods, Red de Mujeres Sindicalistas offers free advice and support to women facing GBVH and discrimination in the world of work. “We help unions create protocols against discrimination and violence and … help train female workers to identify evidence and proof when facing discrimination or workplace violence,” said González, adding that another barrier to implementing C190 is that many workers do not know their rights.

“If you don’t know about it [C190], you don’t know that you have rights, that you are protected, and that you can demand that your rights be respected,” she said. Such rights must be upheld during times of crisis, including climate events. Yet, few unions are currently discussing it, she explained. “Climate change is a global problem, and unions need to address it in collective negotiations.”

Increasing need for investments in organizing and research

While organizations such as SEWA are already working to address climate change’s impact on women workers, increased investment is needed to support and strengthen existing organizations and their efforts to inform and influence domestic and international policy.

Workers like Rohit would like to see more investment into the organizing of women workers. This focus must not only be on building assets and access to savings and insurance, but also collective power, be it in the informal sector or the garment industry where organizing efforts have led to major strides.

“Organizing and freedom of association are essential to elevate the needs and perspectives of women workers, ultimately creating pressure that leads to less precarious working conditions and sustained systems change,” explained Jana Morgan, executive director of Funders Organized for Rights in the Global Economy.

But in order to ramp up action — including at the international and national levels — additional research is needed to inform decision- and policymakers. While there is growing evidence of the link between climate change and the socioeconomic vulnerability of women, as well as increases in gender-based violence, more investments are needed to capture data on its impact in the world of work.

“We’re actually at a stage where we need research from around the world and across all sectors to fully understand and address these issues,” said Morgan.

This is something Equidem is trying to address by incorporating climate impacts in the world of work into every study it does on exploitation and human rights abuses with a specific focus on migrants. For example, by collecting data on climate migration, heat stress, and labor exploitation in the United Arab Emirates and the working conditions of garment workers in Bangladesh.

“My greatest hope for our research in this area is that it makes an undeniable case that the world of work and conversations on environmental justice have to be brought together in order to make progress that’s inclusive and sustainable,” said Equidem’s Silliman Bhattacharjee.

With the fifth anniversary of the adoption of ILO C190 this June and the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 29, just around the corner, “the women’s labor movement provides evidence and proven solutions for women’s climate adaptation and resilience, which are essential for protecting workers from GBVH. We need to invest in them,” said Morgan.

There’s also a need for trade unions, legislators, and business players to pay attention to how vulnerable workers are being impacted by climate change, and especially how it’s making workers across sectors increasingly vulnerable to GBVH, explained Silliman Bhattacharjee. She hopes that as climate mitigation and climate response frameworks emerge, the world of work will be front and center in those conversations.

“Climate is shifting the landscape across every major issue in the world of work,” said Silliman Bhattacharajee. “We must also shift our response.”

Visit Women Rising — a new narrative series spotlighting the intersection of gender-based violence and harassment and climate change in the world of work.