How Compensation Shapes Gender Differences in Support for Climate Action

• In Event: New Frontiers in Gender and Political Economy

Abstract

Recent research establishes that gender differences in climate attitudes are highly correlated with countries’ levels of economic development: when countries are wealthier, a gap emerges whereby women are more likely than men to express concern about our changing climate. We argue that this pattern reflects variation across countries and between men and women in the perceived costs and benefits of climate mitigation. We conduct a multi-country survey experiment to gauge how policies that lessen the perceived costs of climate action affect climate attitudes among men and women. Our expectations are threefold: (1) If baseline concern about climate change is lower among men in high-income countries because men perceive climate action as costlier than women, then compensatory policies will increase men’s support relative to women’s support. (2) This effect will be strongest when compensation is framed in ways that emphasize benefits to men. (3) Because the perceived benefits of climate action are already high among men and women respondents in lower-income countries, compensatory policies will not increase respondents’ support further. We draw on data from five high-income countries – Australia, France, Kuwait, Sweden, and the US – that vary on theoretically-relevant characteristics. We also include two lower-income countries – Brazil and Peru – in our study.

Authors

• Sarah S. Bush, University of Pennsylvania

• Amanda Clayton, UC Berkeley