Research shows a gender divide on caring about environmental issues

Is there a gender divide when it comes to caring about the planet? Research suggests there is: that girls tend to care more about environmental issues than boys do. So, there’s an effort to try to figure out how to close that gap.

Caroline Preston is managing editor of the Hechinger Report, a nonprofit newsroom covering education; she also writes a newsletter about climate and education news. She’s written about this, and joined The Show to talk more about it.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Caroline, what exactly is the issue we’re dealing with here?

CAROLINE PRESTON: Yeah, so there’s actually quite a bit of research on this idea suggesting that girls tend to care more about nature, care more about climate change, be more anxious and worried about climate change than boys are. And it seems like there are a few reasons for that.

And I talked with Joseph Henderson. He’s a lecturer at [University of] Vermont who’s studying some of these issues, looked at the research, and is among the people kind of trying to do something about that and get boys in on climate action.

But part of the reason may be that girls and boys are socialized somewhat differently. And it’s kind of seen as more feminine to care about other people and and by extension, care about nature and animals. And so girls must may be just kind of more drawn to caring about the environment, and also more comfortable doing so.

Whereas some men — obviously not all and not all boys — but people who may feel uncomfortable about their gender maybe a little bit threatened by it, they may be more drawn to behavior that is is kind of less coded as feminine. So sort of more stereotypically masculine and not about helping the environment.

MARK BRODIE: How does this manifest itself?

CAROLINE PRESTON: So I mean, Henderson, the professor who I talked to from the University of Vermont, had actually seen this in his classes. So boys and men, and these are university classes, being more engaged in class. And in some cases, he’d even run across men, young men, who were sort of drawn to almost even like, you know, eco-fascist ideas.

That’s, that’s maybe stronger than what he saw, but that is a limited phenomenon of sort of men who maybe feel threatened and so see protecting see the planet and environmental issues from a sort of scarcity standpoint and we need to protect nature from sort of other people, maybe people who don’t look like us, taking those resources.

But I’ve heard this from other teachers, too, an art teacher, for example, who I remember said that girls just tended to be more interested and engaged on climate issues. So, anecdotally, teachers are seeing this, and then the research is out there, to suggest that this is the case.

MARK BRODIE: So does Professor Henderson, for example, see like boys might be less willing to recycle things or maybe more likely to buy, you know, a gas-powered car as opposed to an electric vehicle or something like that? Or is it maybe is it more like on the engagement, like they just don’t care quite as much as as some girls do?

CAROLINE PRESTON: I think in his class, my sense was it was more the latter. It was more about sort of engagement in class, or people talking about what their activities were and what they were drawn to.

But I do think that there is research showing that women and girls are more likely to sort of take more pro-climate behavior, and that would include things like supporting policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change, for example, and even like you said, recycling behaviors and things like that.

MARK BRODIE: Does the research suggest how much of an issue this is, like how big of a disparity there might be between boys and girls in terms of caring about the climate, caring about the planet and taking action on it?

CAROLINE PRESTON: Yeah, I think that research consistently finds it, but I don't think it's massive. You know, I think the gender divide exists, but it's not a chasm. And certainly there are a lot of men and boys who are leaders on climate action. So I think it's something that definitely can be addressed.

And one of the things that Henderson and some of his research colleagues are trying to do right now is studying both in the U.S. and also in Scandinavian countries that really take a different approach to nature and to nature education and see about some of the things that work to engage people and young people and boys in particular.

MARK BRODIE: What are the implications of having a a gender divide on on caring about the environment, caring about the planet?

CAROLINE PRESTON: Yeah, I think if you’re somebody who feels like it’s important to take steps on climate change and it’s an important environmental and social issue, then having half of the population potentially less drawn to these issues and less willing to take action would be concerning.

But I think that there are a lot of opportunities to Dr. Henderson would say, get men involved. I mean, I think there’s been a lot written in recent years about boys and men kind of falling behind girls in some ways, in terms of graduation rates, in terms of college-going rates, and some of the good jobs that have been available and more, more masculine-dominated have are eroded in recent years.

And I think that there are ways to sort of combine getting boys and men involved in some of these career-advancing ways and also climate action. For example, skills-based and career education that’s geared around some of these green jobs, so to speak. I’ve talked to school districts that have clean energy programs coming up in their career and technical education space.

And that kind of really hands-on and sort of skill-based education, both girls and boys can benefit from that and like it, but it tends to be particularly engaging for boys.

MARK BRODIE: You kind of alluded to this, but I want to ask you more specifically if there’s a sense that this divide on caring about the environment and the planet and everything, does that sort of fall into some of the other stuff we’ve been hearing about recently in terms of masculinity and boys especially feeling like they’re losing their masculinity or need to do things that, you know, sort of fall into a particular vision of what masculinity is?

CAROLINE PRESTON: Yeah, I mean, one of the concepts that Dr. Henderson talks about is this idea of threatened masculinity and men feeling like they’re falling behind as as women advance. And so this is part of why this sort of idea of men who may be gender insecure trying to sort of justify themselves and their value through more coded masculine behavior comes up, and environmentalism and caring for animals, caring for the planet is not one of those behaviors. And so I think that that kind of really can exacerbate the divide in some ways. And to your question, yeah, it’s all very connected, I believe.

MARK BRODIE: So does he think that this is the kind of thing that, you know, if you were to start with kids when they’re, you know, young, when they’re maybe in kindergarten or even before that, perhaps, that that might reduce some of the divide between the between the sexes?

CAROLINE PRESTON: Yes. I think so. I mean, he and many others think that climate education, environmental education can begin very young, in preschool. There are age-appropriate ways to talk about these issues and talk about behaviors that are good for the planet without kind of freaking kids out in an inappropriate way about climate issues. And outdoor education is also seen as a big positive possible solution, possible possible way of getting people engaged.

MARK BRODIE: All right. Well, we’ll have to leave it there. That is Caroline Preston, managing editor of The Hechinger Report. Caroline, thank you. I appreciate it.

CAROLINE PRESTON: Thanks so much.