WOMEN will bear the brunt of extreme heat as more frequent heatwaves on a warming planet pose a growing threat to their work, earnings and lives, researchers have warned.
The impacts of rising heat are disproportionately dangerous and costly to women - be it at home or on the job - according to a report titled 'The Scorching Divide' by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock).
The US-based non-profit's research, which analysed India, Nigeria and the United States, said that extreme heat could kill 204,000 women annually across the three countries in hot years.
"Extreme heat is quietly but profoundly brutalising women worldwide," said Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of Arsht-Rock. Heat creates a "double burden" for women, the report warned.
"Women are not only more susceptible to physically getting sick from heat, they're also disproportionately expected to care for everyone else who's sick from heat, whether that's paid care or unpaid care," McLeod told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Heatwaves are breaking records around the world and the continued release of planet-heating emissions - largely from the use of coal, oil and gas - will push global temperatures into uncharted territory in the coming years, scientists have said.
The debilitating heat will take its toll on women, forcing them to work longer hours - whether outdoors on a farm, for example, or doing unpaid domestic work like cooking and cleaning at home - for less money or no income at all, the report said.
"Women in poverty are being pushed further into poverty, and women climbing out of poverty are being pulled back in," McLeod said.
With the average number of heatwave days projected to at least double by 2050 in India, Nigeria and the US, women from the poorest and marginalised communities will suffer the biggest blow to their productivity, the report found.
Much of these heat-related productivity losses - pegged at about $120 billion (£93bn) each year across the three countries - are in the context of unpaid household work and linked to lack of access to domestic cooling equipment, according to the research.
About 1.2 billion rural and urban poor globally are expected to be living without cooling solutions by 2030, with 323 million of them in India alone, according to Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), a U.N.-backed organisation working on energy access.
These solutions range from domestic air-conditioning to cold chains for farm produce.
Women spend almost twice as much time than men working at home, taking care of children or older relatives and managing the house - and those who cannot afford air-conditioning experience a bigger hit to their productivity, the report found.
In nations such as Nigeria, where heat exacerbates symptoms of tropical diseases from malaria to yellow fever, mothers bear the "double burden" of looking after themselves and caring for sick family members, amounting to hours of unpaid work.
In Britain, where women from black communities are nearly four times more likely than white women to die in childbirth, climate change will only exacerbate the challenges they face, according to Selvaseelan Selvarajah, a doctor in east London.
While the rich can afford air-conditioning units and electricity costs, the poor cannot, Selvarajah said.
"In poor housing, even if the council gave you air-conditioning, you're paying hundreds of pounds a month for your electricity - you're not going to want to turn it on," he said.
Farm worker Savitri Devi, 40, soldiered through the harsh summer in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh this year, working in fields at temperatures as high as 44 degrees Celsius even as scores of people died during the heatwave in the state in June.
Women in India lose nearly a fifth of their paid working hours to heat, and extreme heat is pushing female wages below the poverty line in sectors including agriculture, which accounts for 70 per cent of total female employment, the report found.
"I obviously suffered working in the sun. I fell ill, and my wages were cut for every hour lost due to the heat. But what do I do? I have to work for money," said Devi, who earns Rs 250 (£2/$3.05) for eight hours of work per day.
Labour experts said rising heat has compounded the problem - particularly for the rural poor. As droughts dent crop harvests and fuel male migration from villages in search of alternative work, women are left behind to take care of farms and families.
Benoy Peter, executive director of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, a Kerala-based non-profit, said most agricultural work in rural India consists of invisible labour by women - who assume a bigger burden when men migrate to cities.
"So women do the farm work, take care of older people and children. But if they fall ill, there is no one to take them to a health facility," he said.
McLeod of Arsht-Rock said people were starting to understand the effects of heat - from a financial and health perspective - and stressed the need to take urgent action on the issue.
"This crisis, given where our emissions are ... it's only getting worse," she said. "No one has to die from heat. All of these deaths and illness are preventable. We just hope that people pay attention."
(The Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Women will bear the brunt of extreme heat: Research
Arsht-Rock report says extreme heat could kill 204,000 women annually in India, Nigeria and the US

Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap perform at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Police may probe anti-Israel comments at Glastonbury
BRITISH police said they were considering whether to launch an investigation after performers at Glastonbury Festival made anti-Israel comments during their shows.
"We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon," Avon and Somerset Police, in western England, said on X late on Saturday (28).
Irish hip-hop group Kneecap and punk duo Bob Vylan made anti-Israeli chants in separate shows on the West Holts stage on Saturday. One of the members of Bob Vylan chanted "Death, death, to the IDF" in a reference to the Israel Defense Forces.
"Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation," the police statement said.
The Israeli Embassy in Britain said it was "deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival".
Prime minister Keir Starmer said earlier this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap to appear at Glastonbury.
The band's frontman Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November. He has denied the charge.
A British government minister said it was appalling that the anti-Israel chants had been made at Glastonbury, and that the festival's organisers and the BBC broadcaster - which is showing the event - had questions to answer.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was also appalled by violence committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"I'd also say to the Israeli Embassy, get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank," Streeting told Sky News.
"I wish they'd take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously," he said.
(Reuters)