Women's and Children’s Health

No matter one’s gender, we all deserve to work and live in a safe and healthy environment. 


Women and children face greater exposure to and harm from toxic chemicals than men. Our gendered society means women are conditioned to feel responsible for making the “right” shopping and lifestyle choices to keep their families safe. Our program fights to end that flawed approach; We believe is time to hold corporations accountable for making safe products, and make our government prioritize protecting our families over profits.

Toxic chemical exposures have been linked to breast and reproductive system cancers and complications like endometriosis. They also harm fertility and put healthy pregnancies in danger. Even short-term exposure to pollution during childhood can permanently harm children’s behavior and body development.

Fixing the Problem:

Most industrial chemicals have undergone inadequate safety testing— their effects are almost entirely unknown. With cancer and other chronic health diseases on the rise, and taking into account their link to our exposure to toxins, our program holds corporations and the government accountable for the production of harmful chemicals.

Right now, consumer tips advise shoppers on how to make safe choices in an attempt to limit our exposure to toxic chemicals. Ultimately, these individual responsibility “solutions” unfairly burden women who feel the increased pressure to keep their families safe.

At the end of the day, people are left paying the price for polluters. This is a completely ineffective way to address a crisis caused by corporations’ reckless use of toxic chemicals and government failure to hold them accountable. Our program is building an equitable movement to reduce exposure to toxics— one that promotes legal protections against harmful chemicals making their way into people and our environment in the first place. We work to ensure companies are held accountable to stop production of dangerous chemicals and clean up the contamination they’ve created. We support and work to fight alongside people who live and work on the frontlines of these exposures.

Public Letter to Amazon to Remove Skin Lighteners

Request to Amazon to stop selling illegal mercury-ladden cosmetics. Read the letter.

Public Letter to Ebay to Remove Skin Lighteners

Request to Ebay to stop selling illegal mercury-ladden cosmetics. Read the letter.

May 6, 2020

WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, the Sierra Club’s Gender Equity and Environment Program and Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) launched the second annual U.S. Accelerator for Grassroots Women Environmental Leaders. Building on the success of the 2019 U.S.…

March 1, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and the Sierra Club released a new report, Gender and Climate Change in the United States: A Reading of Existing Research, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive…

October 31, 2019

Oakland, CA— Sierra magazine’s November/ December edition is now on newsstands and arriving at subscribers’ homes. This is a themed issue focused on gender, equity, and the environment—and this special edition was produced entirely by female writers…

October 31, 2019

Oakland CA-- Today, Sierra Magazine launched its new sustainability advice column “Ms. Green,” written by Jessian Choy-- green lifestyle professional, Earth Island Institute board member and fighter for equal rights. Jessian’s series will replace…

October 10, 2019

San Francisco, CA-- Twenty-one women who are leading climate solution efforts across the country will meet at a collaboratory to address pressing environmental and climate challenges, and ways to transform their own work into scalable solutions for…