The sky darkens as the sun slowly fades from view, obscured by looming clouds. Raindrops start to hit the ground, and the entire area is flooded within seconds. It won’t be bad this time, right?
Across the globe, rain is often not a saving grace. While Southern Californians view it as a way to relieve a drought, for millions in vulnerable regions, the sound of rainfall is an alarm bell for impending catastrophe. This was the case for South and Southeast Asia in late 2025, when catastrophic flooding and landslides displaced nearly 1.2 million people (UN News). Or in the case of West Africa, where extreme flooding forced over one million people to seek shelter in other safe areas (UNOCHA). As global climate change warms ocean temperatures and shifts storm tracks, it drastically increases rainfall in areas that historically faced lower storm risk.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre's statistics indicate that of the 46.9 million individuals who moved internally in 2023, 26.4 million did so due to disasters (Baker Institute). Even worse, forced climate migration due to extreme weather, sea-level rise, and drought is expected to increase drastically by 2050 (Vision of Humanity). While these climate-change-induced extreme weather events significantly impact the Earth, they do not affect all people equally. Due to pre-existing socio-economic structures, women and children face different, disproportionate human rights violations when forced to flee their homes.
The Drivers of Movement
But first, why do people move in the first place? Now, there are two different types of physical drivers of displacement: sudden-onset and slow-onset. Sudden-onset hazards include category 4/5 hurricanes, flooding/landslides, and mega-wildfires that destroy infrastructure overnight. For example, the catastrophic January 2025 Southern California wildfires, which included the devastating Palisades and the Eaton Fire, forced over 150,000 people to be displaced and left thousands of structures across Los Angeles County damaged, destroyed, or uninhabitable (NBC).
Slow-onset hazards are related to sea-level rise, desertification, and saltwater intrusion into agricultural soil, which gradually makes a landscape unlivable. For instance, due to coastal erosion around Portuguese Bend in Palos Verdes, the 700-acre area is slowly but actively sliding towards the ocean, accelerating to several inches per week at its peak (RPVCA). Additionally, sea levels on the California coast are predicted to rise by 1.5 ft by 2100 (Coastal California Commission), with areas already flooding regularly (PPIC). In areas with sudden-onset and slow-onset hazards like this, inhabitants have no choice but to leave and seek shelter elsewhere.
Vulnerability in Safe Havens
They may find safety in temporary shelters or refugee camps; however, they aren’t necessarily a saving grace for some. Not only does climate displacement increase gender-based violence against women, but it also makes it extremely difficult to take care of themselves, whether it be related to pregnancy or sexual/menstrual health. According to UN Women, following Hurricane Katrina, which reached Category 5 strength in the Gulf before making landfall as a devastating storm, the rate of rape among displaced women in trailer parks rose 53.6 times the baseline rate in Mississippi. According to Science Direct, all forms of gender-based violence, including sexual violence and early/forced marriage, increase after humanitarian disasters and forced displacement. Due to a lack of physical security in shelters, camps, or temporary settlements after being displaced, women are at an “increased risk of rape, sexual harassment, and other forms of violence”.
It's important to note the even more disproportionate effects climate displacement has on trans women. In disaster and evacuation settings, transgender individuals face severe discrimination. They are frequently barred from accessing gender-segregated emergency shelters, restrooms, and aid distribution lines, exposing them to heightened risks of street harassment and targeted physical assault (Advocates for Trans Equality).
In addition to violence, there is a disparity related to health and sanitation access. For those in poor socioeconomic conditions, period poverty can get extremely worse in times of a climate crisis. In Northern Ghana, flooding that affected agricultural yields left women and girls unable to afford menstrual products. This forces them to use unhygienic alternatives, including rags or tissues, which pose health risks (The Lancet). Related to pregnancy, sudden-onset hazards like cyclones, storms, and flooding lead to an “interruption of health systems, as well as access to safe and clean water and sanitation, all of which impact safe pregnancy and delivery” (NIH). Additionally, a study found that in 2021, climate-related displacement places over 14 million women at risk of losing access to contraception over the next decade (NIH). Even though women make up over 50% of the population, there still aren't any safeguards for women’s health in crises like climate-induced displacement.
The Legal Vacuum and Displaced Networks
From an anthropological perspective, women in these vulnerable communities often rely heavily on localized, informal community networks through neighbors or extended family for childcare, resource sharing, and economic survival. Data from post-flood Pakistan and rural Bangladesh shows that women depend entirely on these deeply embedded, localized kinship systems to navigate environmental shocks and share daily labor burdens (National Institutes of Health). Climate displacement shatters this bond and women’s ability to lean on each other. It can also make women economically vulnerable and socially isolated.
Generally, climate-displaced individuals don’t have much protection. Under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, individuals fleeing environmental disasters do not legally qualify as “refugees” in other countries. Because the international legal framework has not kept up with the climate crisis, these individuals fall into a legal vacuum, denied the explicit rights and legal pathways given to political refugees. Therefore, this lack of status leaves those individuals, including women and children, with fewer avenues for legal immigration to the new area or to get work authorization. Without a legal way to earn a living, they are left to navigate an unknown land as strangers without a safety net. Because migration pathways are heavily restricted, women are disproportionately forced into irregular, undocumented migration channels where they face extreme vulnerability to human trafficking, labor exploitation, and physical abuse without any state oversight or legal recourse (International Organization for Migration).
Fortunately, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, internally displaced individuals maintain a full range of economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights, including the right to basic humanitarian assistance and protection from violence. And it’s not to say that there aren’t regions that offer some protection for climate-displaced individuals. For example, in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security offers Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to migrants experiencing environmental disasters in their home countries. This applies to nationals of countries experiencing armed conflict and circumstances that prevent them from returning to their country. According to the American Immigration Council, “as of March 31, 2025, there were approximately 1.3 million people with TPS living in the United States. Since that date, the Trump administration has terminated or announced its intent to terminate TPS for over 1 million of these individuals, including over 50,000 Hondurans, over 330,000 Haitians, and over 600,000 Venezuelans”. Many of these terminations are being challenged in court, and the outcomes are still unclear at this time. Some countries in Latin America also protect their immigration policies. Specifically, Brazil issues special humanitarian visas for foreigners from nations facing severe environmental or armed crises (RCRC Conference).
Centering Women in Climate Policy
However, women who are impacted by these inequities do not just sit idly by as passive victims of the climate crisis. Across the Global South, grassroots networks such as the "Women’s Empowerment for Resilience and Adaptation Against Climate Change" initiative have mobilized over 250,000 rural women to gather community capital, spearhead local agro-forestry, and secure independent property rights to fortify their communities against environmental instability (see UNFCCC). Climate adaptation policies in the EU and in America would be more effective if women were given seats at the policy-making table. Bringing in the necessary perspectives from frontline leaders who are actively implementing survival strategies on the ground is essential to effective policy creation. Climate justice is inherently tied to human rights and gender equity, more than people may think. By addressing gender inequality, we are better able to understand the varying perspectives needed to tackle the climate crisis. As in nature, so in society, everything is interconnected. We cannot solve the climate crisis without addressing the humanitarian one.
Ruby Tennison is a new communications volunteer with the Angeles Chapter who is passionate about exploring the intersections of climate and social justice.