{"id":21270,"date":"2026-05-06T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/?p=21270"},"modified":"2026-04-21T10:28:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:28:49","slug":"eco-gender-disparity-when-sustainability-becomes-womens-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/eco-gender-disparity-when-sustainability-becomes-womens-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-Gender Disparity: When Sustainability Becomes Women\u2019s Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2018Kate Bushing\u2019<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I stand outside my workplace and think about how sustainability has become my world. I think about a man who once asked me whether I felt guilty for taking up so much space at the University, doing so many roles and never letting anyone else have a chance. As if my success, something I\u2019ve worked towards my whole life, could only exist because of someone else\u2019s shortcomings, as if I am \u2018too good\u2019 to do \u2018so much\u2019, I need to allow others to have a chance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comment made me want to cry. I replayed everything I should have done in an interview to make space for an unnamed other, to allow them to get the role, to submit to my opposition. And although he never said it, I imagined that other as a man. I grieved the opportunities I had supposedly taken from men, rather than the many quietly taken from me. This is how a woman\u2019s world works: caring for your opposition, who is so quick to tear you down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is often how sustainability is framed: a personal responsibility, unevenly shared.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0told\u00a0it’s\u00a0pointless to care about something that we\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0cause, but\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0had this \u2018pointless\u2019\u00a0endeavour pressed into me relentlessly. Maybe caring about the environment has been marketed,\u00a0gendered\u00a0and exhausted. Maybe protecting the Earth has been made into women\u2019s work.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image description: the all female 2024-25 SGO; featured image at the beginning: the all female 2025-26 SGO<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Caring is a Group Effort<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If caring for the environment has been made into women\u2019s work, how are we paid? In guilt\u00a0or inspiration? Well, a study of female employees in\u00a0Metro Manila, the capital region of the Philippines, offers an answer. The study defines\u00a0\u2018eco-caring\u2019<\/em>,\u00a0as concern for the environment and active involvement in ecological action, which was reported\u00a0to lower workplace stress, burnout and absences, and lead to greater job satisfaction. Those with stronger connections to nature also experienced lower anxiety and psychological distress. In this\u00a0context, care allows female\u00a0identifying\u00a0people to feel in control.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When eco-care is supported by those around us and grounded in agency rather than guilt, it can foster fulfilment instead of anxiety. These findings do not suggest that women should quietly absorb yet another responsibility, nor that environmental action is feminine by nature. Rather, they highlight the power of collective action. Eco-care works best as a shared practice, not as individualised responsibility, which can breed climate anxiety and worries of never doing enough. Guilt-based frameworks demand constant self-surveillance and sacrifice, stripping care of its potential to be sustaining. The problem then, is not that women care too much, but that care is extracted, individualised and unsupported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethics as Labour<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the UK, the eco-gender gap shows up clearly in everyday practices. According to Mintel Research, 71% of women say that they actively try to live more ethically, compared to 59% of men \u2013 with women more likely to turn down the heating when they\u2019re not home, conserve water and compost food waste.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These patterns didn\u2019t just fall out of a coconut tree. Women still carry most of the domestic labour, even when they work full-time. This means sustainability practices can become folded into an already heavy bundle of responsibilities, rather than shared across the family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, confusion about what can be recycled points to systemic failure rather than individual negligence.\u00a0Nearly half\u00a0of those surveyed admitted they\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0know how to recycle properly, and some did not have the space to adequately do so. Sustainability is often seen as a personal moral test, rather than an infrastructural responsibility that requires clear systems, shared\u00a0labour\u00a0and collective support.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image description: a pathway lined with trees<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Masculinity and Marketing <\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When sustainability is\u00a0framed as women\u2019s work, not clocking in is a way of performing masculinity. A research paper in 2016, published in the\u00a0Journal of Consumer Research,<\/em>\u00a0found that men may be motivated to avoid or oppose green behaviours to safeguard their gender identity. This includes avoiding carrying reusable bags, recycling or adopting plant-based diets, as these behaviours are perceived as feminine. Rather than an explicit lack of eco-care, these actions can serve to\u00a0maintain\u00a0cultural expectations of strength and independence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also reinforced by marketing. Most eco-friendly products, from cleaning brands to household items, are aimed at women, embedding environmental responsibility into caregiving stereotypes, subtly reinforcing the idea of sustainability as a woman\u2019s domain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gendered framing is noted by Mintel\u2019s Senior Consumer Lifestyles Analyst<\/em>, Jack Duckett, as an opportunity to reposition sustainability as a part of modern masculinity. In a world where women are empowered to stand up to sexist behaviours, or allowing men to get away with not knowing or not caring, framing environmentalism as sexy is a good place to start, but a bad place to end \u2013 a bit like anthropocentrism (which you can read about here<\/a>). It’s not a woman\u2019s role to educate or inspire a man, but there is hope that through framing eco-care as a desirable trait, performative actions will strike real care. I see you, mullet man reading The Bell Jar<\/em> on the train. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gender and Generational Burdens<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Image description: a woman beside a river<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure you now understand how unevenly experienced climate anxiety is; the younger generations feel it too \u2013 reporting the highest levels of worry. Women are more likely to experience the material impacts of climate change, including extreme weather and poverty. The generational dimension is visible in the UK and beyond, where Gen Z and Millennials are reporting rising climate guilt compared with older cohorts. These emotions prompt discussion and community seeking, rather than immediate action, reflecting a desire to share responsibility. Climate anxiety is a completely rational response, highlighting the need for structural solutions that support collective action, rather than leaving environmental responsibility to individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please Mind the Gap<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The eco-gender gap is a symptom of gender inequality. Although our small individual actions matter, expecting women to carry the weight of sustainability reproduces the same inequities they already face. Closing the gap between how people care about the environment requires gender-neutral and collective systems that\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0solely\u00a0rely on consumption-based metrics. Shared responsibility through open dialogues, especially with masculine people are essential.\u00a0The planet is everyone\u2019s home, and therefore everyone\u2019s responsibility: it is not only a woman\u2019s world, so it should not be only a woman\u2019s work.\u00a0

By Felicity Lindo, SGO Projects Officer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Moderating Effect of Eco-caring on Workplace Stress and Burnout of Female Employees\u2019 by Annabel D. Quilon.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The eco gender gap: 71% of women try to live more ethically, compared to 59% of men\u2019 by Susanna Capecchi.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The eco gender gap why is saving the planet seen as women\u2019s work\u2019 by Elle Hunt.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Why do Women Experience More Eco-Anxiety Than Men?\u2019 by Jasmine Wallis.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Gendering the Onus of Sustainability: Has the Eco-gender Gap Made Environmental Action a \u201cWomen\u2019s Issue\u201d?\u2019 by Alina Jaffer.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Gender and Waste Management\u2019 by the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018OK Boomer: A decade of generational differences in feelings about climate change\u2019 by Janet K. Swim, Rosemary Aviste, Michael L. Lengieza and Carlie J. Fasano.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018How big is the generational divide on climate change? By Hannah Ritchie.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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