Why ignoring women endangers the climate | International Women's Day 2025

Outrage + Optimism

Persephonica

Science, Finance, Energy, Policy, Business, Green, Society, Current Affairs, Climate, News, Planet, Society & Culture, Environment, Climatechange, Nature, Parisclimateagreement, Globalwarming

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are women the key to solving the climate crisis? Why are they - and children - so disproportionately affected by the issue? And how can men step up to support change?

To mark International Women’s Day, Christiana Figueres is joined by top climate scientist Dr Katharine Hayhoe.

As well as being Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair at Texas Tech University, Katharine is an influential voice in communicating science at the ‘kitchen table’ level. She and Christiana reflect on the barriers women face in STEM roles, Katharine’s work with Science Moms highlights the impact of the crisis on children and the power of women in conversations about the climate.

Women make up just over a third of STEM professionals in the United States and only a quarter of earth science professors globally. In an era where diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are being rolled back by President Donald Trump’s government, there’s never been a more urgent need for diverse voices in science. Leading data scientist Hannah Ritchie asks how we communicate in this new landscape.

Plus, Katharine shares how her Evangelical Christian faith fuels—rather than conflicts with—her climate work, as she and Christiana they celebrate how love can be the driving force for all genders to unite for climate justice.

Together with Christiana, co-hosts Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson reflect on why diverse perspectives lead to better solutions and ask how men can support greater gender equality in STEM. Throughout, we hear from incredible women worldwide with inspiring messages for International Women’s Day. From Pat Mitchell and her work on Project Dandelion to Natalie Isaacs of 1 Million Women - plus a rallying cry from Fabian Dattner of Homeward Bound.

Learn more

📺 Watch the Science Moms campaign ad broadcast during the Superbowl

🗣️ Read the Science Moms guide on how to talk about climate change with friends, family, or strangers

🤩 Be inspired by Katharine Hayhoe’s TED Talk

📩 And check out our newsletter!

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Producer: Jarek Zaba

Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan

Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

Commissioning Editor: Sarah Thomas

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to outrage and optimism. I'm Tom Riffick-Karnak.
0:06.6	I'm Christiana Figueres. And I'm Paul Dickinson. Today, in the face of all the man-made problems that we spend so much time being concerned about in our world today, we are celebrating International Women's Day.
0:18.5	Plus, we speak to Dr. Catherine Hayho. Thanks for being here.
0:22.9	Okay, friends, so it's become a bit of a tradition that every year we do a special episode for
0:26.6	International Women's Day. And what a pleasure and a privilege it is to do that. I was doing a
0:31.2	little bit of research on International Women's Day, which is March 8th. This episode,
0:35.1	if you're listening to it, the day it comes out, you're just a couple of days before that. And it has a remarkable history that stretches back all the way
0:41.2	to the time before the suffragettes started in New York City. And it's been a lot of interesting
0:45.3	parts of history. So welcome. And how wonderful to be here to celebrate International Women's Day
0:48.9	together. Wait, hold on. You can't just say that and then not give us that history. Like, what? What's the thing?
0:54.7	All right.
0:55.2	Okay.
0:55.5	All right.
0:56.2	So earliest reported International Women's Day was the Women's Day held on February
0:59.8	28th in 1909 in New York.
1:02.5	So that was the first one, but it was just like a one-off event.
1:05.2	So let's bear in mind, this is before universal suffrage.
1:08.3	This is before the suffragettes in the UK and we had voting equality
1:13.2	around the world. There's then various other bits of interesting history that listeners may or may not
1:17.7	know. For example, it became a sort of regular, repeatable thing the following year as a result of
1:23.9	a decision made at the International Socialist Women's Conference in Copenhagen.
1:29.4	But it wasn't until eight years later that it really made history when the Women's Day
	...

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