Why Does Extreme Heat Cost Women More Than Men?
A new report puts a dollar number on something women already feel every summer
Key takeaway: Yes — extreme heat costs women more than men, and a new report puts a number on it: an estimated $57 billion a year in lost income for women in informal jobs across the cities researchers studied. Women take on more of the outdoor, unpaid, and caregiving work that doesn't…
By Dear Sarah · · Updated
Key takeaways
- A 2026 report from HERA, a women-led climate group, found extreme heat costs women in informal jobs an estimated $57 billion a year in lost income across the four cities researchers studied.
- Women's heat-related death rates run up to 20% higher than men's in some of the cities the report examined.
- Up to 91% of women's work in the cities studied is informal, meaning no paid sick days, no air conditioning, and no built-in heat protections.
- Researchers project heat-linked preterm births in Monterrey could more than triple over the next 25 years if nothing changes.
- Women make up an estimated 80% of people displaced globally by climate-related disasters, according to HERA CEO Kathy Baughman McLeod and Carnegie Endowment fellow Shana Tabak.
Summer heat doesn't land on everyone the same way, and now there's a real number attached to that. A report released this summer found that extreme heat costs women working informal jobs — street vendors, market sellers, domestic workers — an estimated $57 billion a year in lost income across the cities researchers studied, and that women's heat-related death rates run up to 20% higher than men's in those same places. The reason isn't a mystery. Women do more of the outdoor and uncompensated work that doesn't pause for a heat advisory, and they're more likely to be pregnant when a heat wave hits, which makes it dangerous in ways a fan and some shade can't fix.
Why does extreme heat cost women more than men?
The report, "Counting the Cost of Heat," comes from HERA, a women-led climate adaptation group led by CEO Kathy Baughman McLeod. Researchers looked at four cities with very different climates — Ahmedabad, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Monterrey, Mexico; and Freetown, Sierra Leone — and found the same pattern everywhere: informal work dominates women's employment, up to 91% in some of these cities compared with 83% for men. Informal means no paid sick days, no air conditioning, no built-in protection when the thermometer spikes. In Bangkok, extreme heat pushes women to cut roughly $500 a year from what they spend on their own kids just to absorb the lost income. In Freetown, households take on more debt every hot season. Without real investment in heat response, the report projects these losses will grow 44% by 2050.
"The evidence in this report is unambiguous," Baughman McLeod said when the findings came out. "Heat is taking a major toll on the women most exposed and least able to escape it."
A companion piece in TIME this month, co-written by Baughman McLeod and Shana Tabak of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, widens the lens further: women make up an estimated 80% of people displaced by climate disasters worldwide, and they're significantly more likely to die during climate-related hazards, in large part because caregiving, water collection, and cooking don't stop just because it's dangerous outside. The essay opens with Santuben Kantibhai, a farmer in Gujarat, India, whose family has been pushed toward the edge by heatwave after heatwave wrecking her crops. She already knows heat is getting worse. The data is just catching up to her.
It's not just happening somewhere else
It's easy to read city names like Ahmedabad and Bangkok and file this under "not my life." But the pattern shows up closer to home too. The U.S. had its own brutal heat stretches this summer, and the jobs most exposed to it — restaurant work, delivery driving, retail without reliable AC, childcare, home health aides — skew heavily female. Heat is also a pregnancy risk, not just an inconvenience: researchers project heat-linked preterm births in Monterrey could more than triple over the next 25 years if nothing changes. We've written before about whether heat waves are actually getting more dangerous, and this report fills in the piece that's usually missing from that conversation: who actually pays for it, in dollars and in bodies.
There's also a quieter thread here that shows up again and again in why so many new moms feel unheard by their doctors — women's physical experience, whether it's heat risk or pregnancy symptoms, tends to get treated as background noise until someone puts a number on it. The unpaid load of checking on an aging parent or keeping kids safe during a heat advisory still tends to land on women in the family, regardless of income or zip code.
One small thing to try today
You don't need to fix a global heat economy this week. But you can do one specific thing: think of one woman in your life who works outside, works without reliable AC, or is pregnant right now, and check in on her today. Ask if she's actually getting real water breaks, not just theoretical ones. If you're in a position to, bring her a cold bottle of water, cover part of a shift, or say something to a manager on her behalf. Staying hydrated matters here too — if you've never looked at why nearly half of women show up dehydrated before they even work out, it's a good reminder that most of us are already behind on water before the heat index even climbs. Small, direct care, aimed at one real person, is where this starts.
Quote to sit with
"All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change." — Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower
💌 Sarah
Frequently asked questions
Does extreme heat really affect women more than men?
Yes. A 2026 report from HERA found women in informal jobs lose an estimated $57 billion a year in income to extreme heat, and their heat-related death rates run up to 20% higher than men's in the cities studied. The gap comes down to who does outdoor, unpaid, and caregiving work when temperatures spike.
What is the HERA heat report and who wrote it?
It's called "Counting the Cost of Heat," from HERA, a women-led climate adaptation organization led by CEO Kathy Baughman McLeod. Researchers studied Ahmedabad, Bangkok, Monterrey, and Freetown and found the same pattern in each city: heat hits women's income and health hardest.
Does extreme heat affect pregnancy?
Yes. The report projects heat-linked preterm births in Monterrey could more than triple over the next 25 years without intervention, and pregnant women are already known to face higher risk from heat-related complications.
Is this only a problem in countries like India or Thailand?
No. The U.S. saw its own severe heat stretches this summer, and the jobs most exposed here — restaurant work, delivery driving, retail without reliable AC, childcare, home health aides — are also disproportionately held by women.
What can I actually do if I know a woman who works outside in extreme heat?
Check in on her directly and ask if she's getting real water breaks, not just scheduled ones. Bring her water, cover part of a shift if you can, or raise it with a manager on her behalf. Small, specific care aimed at one real person is a genuine starting point.
Sources
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