More than three-quarters of the world’s unpaid work is done by women, accounting for 11 billion hours of work every day.
Climate change has been exacerbated in recent years by global warming, extreme weather and rainfall. These events have led to workplace conflicts, affecting sectors such as agriculture, construction, healthcare and trade. Heatwaves, especially when storms cause disruption and damage, can lead to deaths in workers working outdoors.
Ecological impact
Changes in rainfall patterns will directly affect water supply and water management, creating many problems for water-dependent industries, particularly agriculture and businesses. As climate change becomes more widespread, adapting to environmental change and finding ways to reduce ecological impacts in the workplace will help end the stigma that hinders what is good for worker safety, health and productivity.
Climate change threatens jobs
Dr Manju Gupta, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Mother and Child Hospital in Noida, explains that the physical differences between women and men in hot weather are striking. Women work in many sectors, which increases the challenges they face in hazardous work that threatens their health and workplace safety. For example, in agriculture and fishing, where women make up the majority of the workforce, the long-term effects of weather conditions such as heat, flooding and rain have been shown to put women at risk of injury, heat stroke and death. and died.
The workload in nursing homes is high and affects mental health
Women worldwide do three times as much care and household work as men. Women in low- and middle-income countries spend more time in unpaid work than women in high-income countries. But there are also differences in income levels within countries. Because unpaid work is not captured in a country’s accounting and legal systems, it is often considered undervalued and invisible in the mainstream economy. Unpaid care and housework are linked to poor mental health and lower quality of life, but most of the research on this topic comes from wealthier countries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, men and women around the world have spent more time caring for their families and working from home. But women are doing so at a higher rate and with greater effort. It is reasonable to expect that women working unpaid are more prone to mental health problems during times of crisis due to stress and workload.