Blog 7 March 2025
Across the course of their lives, women are more likely to be exposed to greater levels of air pollution. This manifests in adverse and gendered health outcomes.
Traditional gender roles mean women (particularly in low- and middle-income countries) are often responsible for household chores like cooking or heating, putting them at greater risk of pollution exposure, e.g. from burning wood or coal. One study in rural Uganda and Ethiopia found a five-fold difference in personal household pollution exposure between men and women.
Outside the home, women are more likely to work jobs that put them near pollution sources, like at markets on busy roads or smoking fish. Women are also overrepresented in the informal economy, working low-skilled or informal jobs with little information about their rights, health and safety.
Damage to women’s health
Air pollution has a uniquely damaging effect on women’s health. Those living in polluted areas have a greater breast cancer risk. Certain chronic health conditions, like asthma, are more common in women than in men, which can magnify the health effects of air pollution.
Air pollution has been found to increase women’s risk of heart disease. A 2022 study found diesel exhaust caused changes in the makeup of blood components tied to heart disease, inflammation and infection. The effect was much more pronounced among women.
Women were found to be more vulnerable than men to the effects of super pollutant tropospheric ozone, with higher rates of death from cerebrovascular disease (which can lead to brain damage or stroke) when levels of the pollutant were higher.
Increased risks for maternal health
A growing body of evidence suggests exposure to air pollution has a devastating impact on fertility and maternal health. For people undergoing IVF treatment, it can decrease the odds of having a baby by over a third. Exposure can put pregnant women at higher risk of complications like stillbirth, miscarriage and postpartum depression. One study found air pollution to be as dangerous as smoking for miscarriage.
Women of colour, already facing stark maternal health inequalities compared to their white counterparts, are disproportionately exposed to high levels of air pollution. Yet they are often excluded from conversations around clean air and the health impacts of climate change.
Air pollution, gender and the climate crisis
Some of the pollutants that degrade air quality also accelerate climate change. The climate crisis disproportionately affects women by exacerbating systemic inequalities.
Patriarchal structures dictating women’s roles and access to resources impact their resilience to the effects of climate change. Women are more likely to live in poverty and in areas with limited access to emergency services, housing and clean air. They are more likely to rely on climate dependent natural resources (like agriculture) for food and work, and have domestic responsibilities tying them to the home. They tend to be caregivers for children, older and disabled family members.
These conditions make their lives more prone to the effects of climate change. When hazardous air pollution levels shut schools, childcare responsibilities often fall on mothers, impacting their ability to work and generate income. These conditions make responding to, evacuating from, migrating away or recovering from climate disasters, like wildfires, more difficult.
Clean air action by and for women
Civil society organisations have an important role to play in building understanding and mitigating the gendered impact of air pollution. While some evidence exists, it remains disparate across topics, institutions and countries. As women’s health issues have historically been understudied and underfunded, more resource must go towards building a clearer picture of the issue and informing equitable policymaking. In Bulgaria, Dr Zornitsa Spassova’s gender-sensitive review of air pollution’s disproportionate impact on women challenged the notion that the air we breathe impacts us all equally, sparking important discussions in academia and the media.
Yet women’s participation in disaster response, climate governance and resilience planning has been limited. A 2022 survey of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found low female representation and engagement. This issue is more pronounced for women of colour. Only 1 in 20 environmental charity workers in the UK identifies as a person of colour, and women and people from the ‘global south’ are drastically underrepresented in climate science research. Women in leadership bring greater attention to issues that affect women, like air pollution, championing inclusive research, policy and action.
Equitable solutions can only happen through co-creation with women. OpenAQ Community Ambassador Azjargal Tsogtsaikhan set up Breathe Mongolia to promote access to open air quality data after pollution made her family members sick. In Poland, Anna Dworska co-founded a grassroots campaigning group in Krakow that grew into a national movement, Polish Smog Alert, to secure unprecedented legislative changes.
The Black Child Clean Air initiative emerged from the recognition that Black women were being excluded from critical conversations about environmental factors, such as air quality, affecting Black maternal health. Its report underscored the urgent need for intersectional approaches in environmental advocacy and policymaking.
We supported the Bulgarian Fund for Women to establish a capacity building, awareness-raising and micro-granting programme, supporting women, ethnic minorities, rural populations, and people with disabilities and chronic illness to mobilise and lead the budding movement for cleaner air in Bulgaria.
