Impact of Climate Change on Women’s Mental Health: A Narrative Review

Introduction: Climate change is the primary threat to public health in the 21st century, with far-reaching and measurable adverse impacts on physical and mental health. Extreme weather events have heightened the pre-existing gender inequalities. Women confront gendered vulnerability due to factors including societal roles, resource limitations, and increased exposure to extreme weather events. This renders them more susceptible to harm, increased mortality risk, and shorter life expectancies following climate-related disasters. Despite a wealth of literature on mental health consequences, gender-specific mental health impacts of climate change remain underrepresented in research. This review aims to explore and summarise the evidence on mental health vulnerabilities affecting women amid global warming and climate change. Methods: A review of literature was conducted in line with the PRISMA flowchart across four databases: PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science. A total of 5458 articles were identified, of which 11 were retained for analysis. Results: Adverse mental health outcomes in women were identified resulting from floods and cyclones (n = 3), gender-based violence (n = 2), humidity (n = 3) and rising temperature (n = 7). The following themes were derived: women’s mental health related to flooding and cyclones, climate-related gender-based violence, relationship between humidity and women’s mental health and impact of rising temperature/heatwaves on women’s mental health. Conclusion: This review provided evidence for the association between climate change and adverse mental health outcomes in women. These findings emphasize the need for supporting women’s engagement on climate-related decision-making and implementing gender-sensitive interventions. Further research with stronger study designs and methodologies is recommended.