Introducing a U.N. report on women and climate change earlier this week at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, U.N. Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: "Women often play a stronger role than men in the management of ecosystem services and food security. Hence, sustainable adaptation must focus on gender and the role of women if it is to become successful."

It's a view that has also been echoed in the U.S. recently: In Washington, D.C., a coalition of civic leaders last week launched a climate ethics campaign, where the first woman to head the U.S. Senate committee on environment and public works, Senator Barbara Boxer of California, called for increased public pressure to revitalize climate change action, noting that "the cure for the problem is so good for everybody."

Suffering Climate Effects

It's (somewhat) notable that Boxer, the only Senator to speak at the public event, is a woman. It's not news that women are disproportionately affected by climate change -- though it's hardly been front and center in U.S. climate change discourse.

Women have been known for years to suffer more from the problems of food scarcity, water pollution, disease, conflict and displacement that can result from climate change and its effects, like natural disasters.

U.S. Bill on Women, Climate

What is news, though, at least in the U.S., is that a member of Congress -- Barbara Lee of California -- introduced a bill on this topic last month. The bill recognizes what it calls "disparate" effects of climate change on women and calls for efforts to empower women in the process of designing and evaluating strategies to mitigate climate change and its impact.

Especially in recent years, on the U.S. policy front the climate change discourse has largely focused on the economic impact of climate change, how to involve business in mitigating -- or even profiting by mitigating -- its effects, as well as how to stimulate a carbon market, both to boost the economy and to reduce negative environmental impacts.

Next page: How climate change impacts women